THOMASVILLE — Wild felines who populate the county are no longer known as feral cats. They are known today as community cats, and Thomas County commissioners want to help decrease their numbers, starting at a county trash collection site.

Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to work with the Thomasville-Thomas County Humane Society to allow community cats to be trapped at the trash collection facility at Highways 188 and 202.

Dr. Beckey Malphus, a Thomasville veterinarian and Humane Society medical director, asked commissioners to guess how many community cats are in Thomas County. There are approximately 17,000, she said.

The Humane Society wants to reduce not only the number of community cats, but those who wind up at the Humane Society animal shelter, Chandler Giddes, Thomas County animal control director and director of animal shelter daily operations. The goal, he said, is for all felines to reside in loving, forever homes.

Community cats at the trash collection site will be trapped, sterilized at the South Georgia Low-Cost Spay & Neuter Clinic in Thomasville, vaccinated against rabies, have an ear clipped and returned to the trash collection site. The clipped ear will make the cat easily identifiable as one who has been captured, sterilized and released.

Community cats recognize county trash collection sites and trash bins in cities as food sources. People feed the seven to 10 community cats seen daily at the 188 and 202 location.

“The only site we did not see cats at is the Stewart Road site,” Giddens told commissioners.

Citizens will be named to be attendants at the site. They will help monitor feline numbers, notify animal control if new cats arrive and report sick or injured cats.

Sheltered feeding stations — “catios”— will be constructed outside the fenced trash collection site.

“We’re not asking for money,” Malphus told the board. The project is funded by a grant obtained by the Humane Society and the low-cost spay and neuter clinic.

County Manager Mike Stephenson asked how it will be determined if the project is working.

The animal shelter will see a “drastic decrease” in cat euthanizations, Malphus said.

Humane Society officials also would like to see the community cat project at:

• Businesses

• Apartment complexes

• Rural communities

• Parks

• Other public places

The 188 and 202 trash collection site project will begin as soon as Humane Society officials meet with people feeding the cats and discuss plans with the site attendant.

On Wednesday, Malphus said that if the project at the 188 and 202 site is successful, commissioners will be asked to allow the effort to expand to other sites.