Trapping & Transport Assistance
We understand that trapping cats for the first time can be a daunting and intimidating experience. Ideally, we like to teach caretakers how to trap on their own--we offer a free educational TNR workshop at BARCS once a month, where we show an instructional video and bring an actual trap to demonstrate its proper use. We’re also happy to answer any questions you have about trapping in your particular situation.
But if you are not able to trap on your own, we may be able to provide a volunteer to trap your cats for our clinics. (Sorry, but we cannot provide volunteers to trap for other organizations’ clinics.) Volunteers are provided on a first-come, first-served basis. Please note that because we only have a small number of trapping volunteers, you may have a very long wait before someone is available to assist you. This is why we strongly encourage caretakers to attempt trapping on their own.
In order to secure assistance from a volunteer, you must have the cats on a regular feeding schedule--feeding in the same time and same place each day--for at least two weeks prior to the clinic date. You must also stop feeding the cats at least 24 hours before the volunteer plans to trap, so that the cats will be hungry and easier to trap. Our trapping volunteers are extremely dedicated and will do their best to trap all of your cats, but we need you to follow our instructions to the letter in order to make the volunteer’s job as easy as possible.
If you are able to do your own trapping, but need help to transport the cats to the clinic (either because you don’t have a vehicle, or don’t have a vehicle big enough to transport traps), we may be able to provide a volunteer to assist with this as well.
When you fill out the clinic space request form, there are spots to indicate whether or not you require assistance with either trapping or transport.