Trapping Equipment for Loan
Most feral cat groups will loan out traps for caretakers to use in order to bring cats to spay/neuter clinics. In Baltimore, both CCMD and the Maryland SPCA have traps available to loan (although availability tends to be limited at the SPCA). You may also want to consider purchasing your own trap.
CCMD has a large number of humane box traps and a small number of drop traps available to loan to feral cat caretakers at no charge. Priority is given to loaning the traps out for our own clinic, but we are happy to make them available for use at any of the local spay/neuter clinics, scheduling permitting. See our clinic calendar for our upcoming clinic dates to be sure our traps will be available if you wish to use them at a non-CCMD clinic—our traps are generally unavailable for use at other clinics about five days before and after our own clinics.
Our box traps are Safeguard 36D humane traps, which measure about 36 inches long, 11 inches wide and 12 inches tall. Traps containing cats can be safely and comfortably stacked on top of each other for transport, but you should measure the cargo area of your vehicle to determine how many traps you can carry. We recommend protecting your seats or cargo area by putting down a plastic tarp with newspaper on top, to absorb any “accidents” experienced by frightened kitties during transport! Cats should not be transported in the trunk of your car, or in the bed of a pickup truck without a cap, for the safety and well-being of the cats.
Drop traps vary in size; please contact us for exact measurements so you can determine if one will fit in your vehicle.
When you pick up your traps, we will set a date by which time they need to be returned so they can be loaned out to others. Before traps are returned to us, they must be scrubbed clean with mild detergent and disinfected with bleach. (Cleaning instructions are available here as a PDF.) If traps are lost or damaged, you will be charged the cost to replace them (currently $70).
We also have custom-made box trap covers, in limited quantities, that can be loaned out as well. These must be laundered with bleach before they are returned to us.
If you need to borrow traps, please contact us by email (preferred) or by calling our main number and leaving a message in the spay/neuter clinic mailbox.
