The Gloucester-Mathews Humane Society is on a mission to raise awareness of community cats.

According to GMHS executive director Charles Brown and assistant director Jasmine Jutras, volunteers are needed to help with TNR, which stands for Trap, Neuter/spay and Release, in targeted areas. GMHS has been holding community meetings to garner support for this effort.

The goal of TNR is to end cat overpopulation and to prevent the suffering of these community cats. TNR also helps with the behavior of these cats. After cats are spayed/neutered, released into their original environment and have access to food, they become less destructive and their instinct to hunt diminishes. That means the songbird population can remain steady and healthy. Brown said that TNR “really reduces those issues.”

Next year, his goal is to expand GMHS’s Fixin’ to Save Spay and Neuter Clinic by making it a five-day operation and reserving one day a week for community cats.

Neutering/spaying as many commu...