Trap-and-release those who help cats?

Kitten season has begun

The cat of fairy tale and fiction has the power to cross between realms, between the mundane and the magical, the domestic and the wild. See Neil Gaiman's Coraline for an example of a free and empowered feline. For many who fancy cats, the feline appeal is their independence and their resistance to being "owned."  Real cats, however, suffer for being a domesticated animal that can survive without direct human ownership, in feral colonies. The colonies can be a nuisance and even a threat. Besides caterwauling and cat fights, along with the undeniable odor of cat whiz and random attacks on helpless geraniums, there's disease and infestations that can run through a colony and be picked up by pets. Then there's the threat posed to native rodents and songbirds. Outdoor cats (ferals and free-roaming pets) are often cited in Audubon Society notes as contributing to wild species decline. Jonathan Franzen's novel Freedom, a sweeping book on so many of civilization's ills, ends with a rant against cats. At animal shelter conferences, I've also heard shelter staff and volunteers recall the number of cats, including litters of kittens, euthanized because it had been considered "unnatural" or "too expensive" to sterilize a house cat or feral one.

But should the presence of  feral cats in the U.S. lead to a final solution (of questionable morality and dubious practicality) of eradication?
Some believe the humane answer is TNR (trap/neuter/return). The concept: cats are trapped; those that seem tame or domesticated are turned over to animal control or shelters to find or re-find owners; the "wild" ones are sterilized and returned to their colony to breed no more; over time the problem ceases. That is, if no new cats appear--left behind when owners move, released because no longer wanted,  lost while wandering freely, or born to those cats that escaped trapping and the knife.
A North St. Paul man, Doug Edge, was doing his part, he believed, by trapping and having neutered at his own expense "unowned" neighborhood cats. However, he was fined for not having the proper licensing or procedure for having all these cats. Edge's response: "I'll go to jail before I pay the fine." His story was picked up by a local TV station, and you're welcome to watch the coverage. (The story is preceded by a commercial. I saw one for penguins at the Minnesota Zoo--the zoo squirmed out of the shut-down of Minnesota state offices because of that ancient cat/dog fight, Republicans vs Democrats.)   A local humane society with a "Neuter Commuter" van came to his defense, while the city authorities explained that Edge might be trapping others' cats. Also, in some areas, you feed a cat long enough and you "own" it; ergo, Edge was supporting "his" unlicensed cats. Not all individual TNR attempts are discouraged. Neighboring St. Paul seems to support residents' spay-neuter initiatives.
Yes, the problem of feral cats is a fur ball difficult to digest (sorry.)  You can read an explanation of TNR at many websites, including one for AdvocatsHawaii. Hawaii has long had a problem with feral colonies (cats came with Euro-American settlers), to the point of endangering and even extinguishing several rare bird species. Nearly every Audubon Society listing of Hawaiian birds mentions cats and rats (also introduced) as contributing causes to their near extinction. If you think this means TNR people and bird people are happy with each other because both want to stop feral cat breeding, but not so. . . . More on this topic later.
Meanwhile, the fate of Doug Edge and his own TNR mission hangs by its claws.