ELKINS — With “kitten season” in full swing across the area, the Randolph County Humane Society is reminding residents of a program it offers.

The RCHS’ Trap-Neuter-Return program provides residents in the area a way to address any community cat issues that may arise.

“It’s spring season so everything starts to feel like it’s time to reproduce, and TNR is a program in which we attempt to control the community cat population,” said Tina Vial, president of the Randolph County Humane Society Board. “When we have funding and we can concentrate on one area, we can definitely see the results of it by the reduced intakes from that area. The two things that keep us going are funding … and funding.”

Veterinarian fees, staff time and care for the animals after they are spayed or neutered are some of the major costs that come along with the program. Vial said the areas of focus change almost daily, depending on where the program is needed most.

“It changes through the week, depending on what resources we have and where our shelter manager feels we might have the most impact,” she said. “It’s not necessarily a first-come, first-serve situation because that doesn’t address getting the highest impact. Our shelter manager is very skilled in determining which areas need assistance the most.”

The two types of community cats that TNR focuses on are feral cats, which are cats that are unsocialized from humans and originate from lost or abandoned cats; the second is stray cats, which are cats that are living on their own but remain socialized and adoptable. Stray cats are the most prevalent in the Elkins area.

“Some of the cats that we trap and they don’t necessarily belong to someone, one or two of them have a nice affinity toward humans so we may go ahead and try and tame that cat and find it a home by adopting it out,” Vial said. “But in general, the TNR program requires that there be somebody on the other end that is willing to care for those cats after they’ve been trapped, neutered and returned to that area.

“So that if horrible winter weather came along, they would make sure that there were some sort of enclosure the cats would be able to go into and stay warm. Not necessarily a house, but some other way to help them, like with a big plastic bin with a hole cut in the side and maybe some straw inside and lined with styrofoam or something that is suitable shelter for an outside cat to keep them from freezing. And also some type of food source.”

If someone knows of a colony of cats, please contact the Randolph County Humane Society with the location and officials will do the best that they can to help with the problem.

“We know over time the other approaches don’t work and TNR does,” Vial said. “The other ways created other issues of their own and TNR has been proven worldwide to be the most humane approach to taking care of these colonies. If somebody has a particular cat or cats that tend to wreak havoc in a particular way on their property and they want that dealt with, there are ways we can make suggestions to help them address that.

“But typically neutered and spayed animals are much less destructive, so that reduces that issue so that the humans and cats can live in harmony. Plus the homes will have fewer rodents hanging around so it’s a win-win when we do this, opposed to just going in rounding them up and euthanizing them, because all you’ve done is left open a territory for another colony to move in. And if there’s a food source there like a dumpster or a lot of birds hanging out, then a colony is going to move. So you’re going to keep trading one colony for another. Plus it’s just not humane to round up cats and kill them, it’s just not and there’s no reason for it.”

Donations can be made to the RCHS in person or online at www.RCHSWV.org. Animal food, blankets and toys are also accepted.