TNR training in Portugal
Change For Animals Foundation regularly supports International Cat Care (ICC) by providing trainers and training on their Cat Population Management courses that take place several times a year in Figuera da Foz on the west coast of Portugal.
The weeklong courses are offered to vets and animal welfare volunteers at ICC’s European Feline Cat Population Management Training Centre in Figuera and provide both theoretical and practical training. Vets are taught the most current surgical techniques for feline neutering and aftercare under the supervision of expert veterinary trainers while CFAF works directly with the TNR volunteers to teach them about humane and effective cat trapping techniques, community engagement and colony management.
The courses also take a much broader look at TNR’s place in a comprehensive approach towards cat population management and CFAF co-facilitates several classroom sessions exploring the root causes of the problem and people’s attitudes and behaviour to both feral cats and cat management projects.
The training centre has been developed to support vets who work for, work with, or manage charities, and volunteers working with them. It is targeted at countries with developing animal welfare and offers free training in neutering, trapping, and handling of cats, and all the "people stuff" as well, in a collaborative way where ideas and techniques are exchanged in classroom, surgery, and workshop environments.
The project also contributes significantly to the neutering of street cats in the town where the facility is based and trainiees are taught in situ how to achieve a high neuter rate in each site - including the cats that are difficult to catch, rather than just neutering only cats which can be picked up easily.
The centre is currenty accessible only to those working with charities or municipalities on animal welfare and cat population programmes, and is focused on maximising the benefit to street animals' welfare, and the skills of those who are involved directly in their care, to the maximum level possible. As such, all attendees are nominated by an established charity or other authority with whom they work.
You can read more about CFAF's training support for ICC on our blog >>
