On the busy street of Collins Avenue in Orange lives an outdoor cat, but unlike many of her kind, she has found a life of luxury.
On that street is an abandoned house she has made into her home. Some of the neighbors around the area have given her the name “Munch” due to her ever-constant search for food.
Outside of the occasional break-in of neighboring homes, she tends to mind her own business.
There are thousands of cats just like Munch across Orange County. While she tends to live a comfortable life, that’s not always the case for homeless cats and kittens who spend most of their time living outside.
The county-run animal shelter only accepts sick, injured or underaged cats, a practice that is getting challenged by a nonprofit animal advocacy group based in Sacramento. The shelter euthanized about 1,600 cats last year.
[Read: Advocates Demand Reform at California Animal Shelters, Including Orange County]
At the same time, thousands of stray cats across Orange County are uncontrollably reproducing each year, overwhelming local shelters and rescue groups.
[Read: ‘We’re All Overwhelmed’: As Orange County Becomes Overrun With Cats, Local Rescues Struggle to Keep Up]
Nonprofits and residents dedicated to animal advocacy are continually fighting for help in order to address local cat overpopulation issues – oftentimes through trap, neuter and release programs.
Editors’ Note: This dispatch is part of the Voice of OC Collegiate News Service, working with student journalists to cover public policy issues across Orange County. If you would like to submit your own student media project related to Orange County civics or if you have any response to this work, contact admin@voiceofoc.org.
The Catch-and-Release Debate
Trap, neuter and return — commonly referred to as TNR — is one method that helps keep feral cat populations in check.
With this method, cats are taken off the street, spayed or neutered, vaccinated and returned to where they were found. TNR supporters argue this method allows community cats to continue living the lives they know, while cities and shelters can benefit from fewer kittens being born on the streets.
In 2025, Orange County’s public animal shelter brought in over 7,000 cats and kittens, according to shelter statistics.
That number doesn’t include community cats like Munch. OC Animal Care practices a “managed intake” policy for cats and doesn’t accept healthy community cats, even if they’re strays.
Of the approximately 7,000 cats that entered the county-run shelter last year, 128 died in care and 1,629 were euthanized.
OC Animal Care used to offer TNR services but no longer uses this method to prevent cat overpopulation. The county-run shelter has repeatedly said that catch-and-release is considered illegal animal abandonment, according to county counsel.
“Locally, OC Animal Care has been advised by counsel that the release of unowned cats into the community is prohibited by law,” reads a statement on the shelter’s website. “Since not all municipalities share this same understanding, we continue to monitor litigation processes happening around the state for rulings that may impact the penal code.”
[Read: Why is There No Catch and Release Program for Orange County’s Cats?]
Not every municipality in Orange County agrees.
In Garden Grove, the city’s animal care services department operates a Return to Field program for feral and community cats on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, despite the county’s view on the legality of release.
Under this program, free-roaming feral community cats are spayed or neutered, vaccinated, ear tipped, provided flea medication, given basic medical care and returned to their respective communities, according to Garden Grove’s website.
Nonprofits Step Up
The debate over catch and release services is heated and starkly divided among animal advocates and government leaders across Orange County and beyond.
“There are some people in the general public and some organizations that don’t believe in TNR,” said Courtney Hatzenbuhler, an Orange County animal advocate. “They don’t believe in trapping, neutering and vaccinating a feral cat just for it to return back outdoors.”
Hatzenbuhler runs a local nonprofit known as The Kitty Connect that’s dedicated to catch and release services and rehabilitation for homeless cats. The group, founded in 2021, provides TNR services for 30 to 80 cats every month.
While the county refuses to offer TNR, it’s often left up to private organizations and nonprofits to take on the brunt of controlling local stray cat populations.
Hatzenbuhler argued that some people don’t support catch and release programs because they don’t understand it.
“It comes down to public education, and unfortunately, when COVID hit, it was the last domino to fall,” Hatzenbuhler said.
Other local organizations like Meowtopia are also consistently working to provide TNR services in Orange County.
Founded in 2023, Meowtopia works mostly in the Anaheim, Santa Ana and Stanton area to reduce the number of feral cats breeding on the streets.
Led by Somer Traylor, she and her team focus on getting catch and release services to as many homeless cats as they possibly can.
“Me and my little group, we just really focus on TNRing as many cats as we can every single week,” Traylor said. “I would say every week we get at least 20 to 30 cats TNR.”
Traylor and her team have spent the last three years growing Meowtopia as much as possible.
But growth can only go so far without the help of others.
Meowtopia often works alongside The Kitty Connect. Groups like these two find more success by working together to get more resources for homeless cats.
“We’re both very TNR-focused rescues,” Traylor said. “That’s our biggest thing because literally, the only way out of this is through TNR.”
Both groups operate with a group of dedicated volunteers.
“We have people to volunteer for us that do TNR under our rescue,” Hatzenbuhler said. “But we need more resources for affordable spay and neuter, and we need more done by our government, our taxpaying shelters, and we need more nonprofit rescues realizing that TNR is our only way out of this overpopulation crisis.”
Both groups shared their frustrations with Orange County’s lack of aid regarding TNR as they continue reducing feral cat breeding.
“The county needs to provide low-cost spay and neuter for owned pets,” Traylor said. “The majority of these cats that end up on the streets, obviously they have kittens and kittens until they’re fixed.”
Hatzenbuhler said much of the frustration with Orange County is that its surrounding counties have their own systems in place to fight the cat overpopulations.
“All the nonprofit hospitals that give people affordable or low-cost care, especially standard veterinary care like spay and neuter, are all operated in the LA area or the San Diego area,“ Hatzenbuhler said.
“Orange County doesn’t have any now. There’s some veterinary hospitals that don’t actually see feral cats.”
The City of Los Angeles, San Bernardino County, Riverside County and Ventura County all offer trap, neuter and release programs for feral and community cats — while Orange County maintains the practice is illegal.
In Los Angeles, the TNR system was reinstated in December 2020 after over a decade of legal troubles. In 2008, animal advocates sued the city, which stopped the TNR program.
The city conducted a three-year study, which ultimately proved that there was no harm to wildlife populations if TNR was brought back. Now, $2 million per year goes towards funding the neutering and spaying of 20,000 cats per year in Los Angeles.
San Diego County dealt with its own legal troubles after the San Diego Humane Society was sued in 2024 for its catch and release program.
The argument was that friendly cats shouldn’t be released back into the community. Instead, critics argued they should instead be placed in shelters and given a chance for adoption.
After leaders from the San Diego Humane Society made some changes to the Community Cat Program, a judge found the program was allowed to continue.
Homeless cats, like Munch, are everywhere in Orange County, and advocates are warning that populations will only continue to grow.
“If there’s 10 cats, it’s pointless to get seven of them fixed and leave three, because those three can still breed,” Traylor said. “And then those three will turn into 50 before you know it.”
Angelina Hicks is the Voice of OC Collegiate News Service Editor. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.
