Bill Supporting TNR in VA - SB 1390
SB 1390, also known as the “TNR bill,” recently passed the Virginia Senate on Tuesday, Feb. 2nd, 2021. Now the bill will advance to the Virginia House where it will be facing a vote.
What does SB 1390 do?
- Allows public or private animal shelters, releasing agencies, or hospitals or clinics the option to operate a Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program. TNR is a non-lethal method to reduce the population of feral or stray, unowned community cats by humanely trapping, sterilizing, vaccinating, and returning them to where they were trapped.
- Protects TNR program volunteers from civil and criminal charges of abandonment or neglect for the return of healthy, sterilized, and vaccinated community cats to the location where they were trapped.
- Relieves Virginia municipal shelters, and by extension taxpayers, from incurring the costs of ineffective community cat trapping and euthanasia.
- Establishes standards for TNR program volunteers, including requirements for record-keeping and trapping.
Why support SB 1390?
- It will humanely and effectively reduce the number of feral or stray, unowned community cats, improve their health, as well as the nuisance behavior, public health and wildlife predation concerns associated with them.
- It will reduce the number of community cats who are impounded and killed in municipal and private animal shelters, and therefore improve the welfare of community cats across Virginia.
- It will mobilize individuals to go beyond feeding to provide TNR without the fear of prosecution.
How You Can Help
- EMAIL your state Delegate and urge them to vote YES on SB 1390: whosmy.virginiageneralassembly.gov
- SIGN the online petition on Change.org: www.change.org/support-va-tnr
- SPREAD the word about SB 1390 and encourage others to help support it!
TNR is supported by many Virginia shelters, as well as the Virginia Federation of Humane Societies and Humane Dominion. National organizations that support TNR include The Humane Society of the United States, Alley Cat Allies, the American Association of Feline Practitioners, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), the Association of Shelter Veterinarians, Best Friends Animal Society, Cat Fanciers’ Association, Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association, and the National Animal Control Association.
