EAR TIPPING FAQ
Whenever I post a picture of Seal I always wonder if people know why her one ear is so short, so I decided to make an FAQ of all the questions I see people ask about ear tipped cats. Hopefully this is helpful 🙂
As of 4/7/2021 Seal had surgery to remove a mass on her ear so it's now shorter than your average tipped ear.
What is ear tipping?
Ear tipping is when a small part of the cat’s ear is removed while they are under anesthesia.
Why are some cats tipped?
Many places in the U.S. (and some other countries) have what’s called Trap, Neuter, Release (or TNR for short) Programs. Basically, a feral cat is caught, anesthetized, spayed or neutered, and released back to the place where they were caught. Some TNR programs will keep the cat for a bit to figure out if it could possibly become a pet, but most just release the cats as soon as they’re recovered from surgery. Tipping is their way of marking which cats have been spayed or neutered so they don’t accidentally re-trap a cat.
Why tipping instead of a tattoo?
For female cats, you would have to trap the cat again, take it to the vet, anesthetize it, shave it’s belly, then maybe the tattoo would show up, assuming it hadn’t faded over time. For male cats, the cat would have to lift up it’s tail, which it probably wouldn’t do if it was scared of you.
Doesn't it hurt them?
As far as we know, no. They’re under anesthesia when the procedure is done and their ears heal up fairly quickly. Cat’s ears get damaged all the time in the wild and it doesn’t affect their quality of life much. Ear tipping prevents them from having to go through the trauma of being caught again as well, so any discomfort they do experience balances out.
Aren't you supposed to leave tipped cats alone/aren't tipped cats put there specifically?
No! I’m not exactly sure why people think this? Cats are bad for the environment, and it’s not safe for a cat to live outside. If you can, it’s always better to adopt a cat than just leave it. Tipped cats are no different than any other feral, aside from the fact that they’ve been spayed or neutered.
Why don't shelters just adopt out all the feral cats they trap?
The short answer is that they just don’t have the resources. It takes a lot of time and energy to tame a feral cat. It took us months to get Seal to trust us, and we were a family of four with no other pets to care for. Shelters just don’t have that kind of time. They have to focus on caring for the animals who are most adoptable.
Isn't it cruel to spay or neuter a feral?
No. Living on the streets isn’t fun for cats. It isn’t “natural” for them. Yes, many cats can hunt, but it’s still incredibly dangerous to be a lone cat. Shelters can’t take in the sheer volume of cats that exist in the “wild”, but they can keep more cats from being born in such bad conditions. Cats are driven to have kittens purely out of instinct. If you take that instinct away by spaying or neutering, the cat stops wanting to have kittens and just goes on with its life.
Won’t cats go extinct if we spay or neuter them all?
No. Cats are always being bred for shows, so we don’t have to worry about cats going extinct. The hope is that one day cats will be bred by responsible breeders who have veterinary training and know how to breed healthy, happy animals.
