This is something I JUST don't understand. I have had more than one person ask me if i know of anyone who wants a cat (I have four dogs and I used to have a cat who died last year of kidney failure). They found a stray cat and they are feeding it but can't keep it.

Now here's the kicker. They tell me they are feeding it but "just couldn't" take it to the humane society.

Our local animal shelter is very nice. It is a kill shelter but this year they have not put down a single dog and only a very low number of cats.

Here's what I think. At the humane society the cat will be exposed to a good number of potential adopters and be advertised on at least two websites (one of them Petfinder). At your house living in your shed or on your porch, it will be exposed to... how many potential adopters?

At the humane society, it will live in a warm cage and if the cat doesn't find a new home, it will be humanely euthanized (there are no gas chambers here).

At your house, if it doesn't find a new home, it will get killed by a car, attacked by a dog, or targetted by some mean spirited pranksters, eat rat poison or antifreeze, be exposed to the elements and malnutrition (etc).

Today I went home at lunch to let my dogs out. As I was leaving I noticed my neighbor's cat (that wasn't her cat, but she "just couldn't bear to take it to the humane society", so she fed it and let it have litter after litter of kittens) had been killed on the road - right in front of my driveway, so I had to drive over her dead body. A painful, horrible, and completely needless death.

I am so disgusted, sickened and saddened.

End of rant.

I have never taken an animal to the Humanes Society, but is there a stigma attached? Maybe that is why, they are afraid that the people will think they are dumping their own cat.

I personally trap cats seasonally from March through October and deliver most of them to the local shelter. The ones with collars I tie to the owners door once as a courtesty along with a note to keep their cat out of my yard and if it goes missing next time to check the shelter. A shelter is certainly a kinder death than eaten by coyotes, raccoons, killed by a dog, or hit by a car.
There is something about a freshly planted garden that puts out a signal to all neighborhood cats that the litterbox is open and filled. I also had to stop feeding songbirds because I was through the process feeding and attracting cats as well.
Usually in one growing season I trap between 15 - 20 feral cats and another 10 domestic cats. Usually one or two will have collars and only one of those collars will have tags. In three years only one had a microchip.

There is a stigma involved with taking a cat to a shelter. For years shelters were dark miserable places where by entering one you were dooming a dog/cat to death by gassing which is an ugly matter. I volunteer at one which is not like that but rather a bright cheerful place with a less than 5% euthanize rate.

Melissa, that's great.

Having run a trap-spay/neuter-return program for a local cat rescue, and organized feral feeding in managed colonies (which in addition to TNR were also monitored for any necessary veterinary care), nothing pisses me off more than people who feed strays and feral cats without spaying/neutering. It just creates ideal breeding conditions and makes the problem worse. It might make them feel better in the short term, but it causes long term problems. We saw population reduction in every single colony we managed, and some colonies naturally died out (at which point we would begin to manage and TNR a new colony).

what the boneheads at the Richmond SPCA are doing is catching, spay/nueter then releasing the feral cats. My mother in law insists on feeding them, I've recently moved further out into the sticks and if they become a problem I'll just shoot them and live trap the ones with collars

Feral cats cannot be tamed - true feral cats, anyways. Most cats that people describe as feral are actually stray cats, or friendly semi-ferals.

The experience of most trap-spay/neuter-release programs across North America and in parts of the UK (that I know of), even where the cats are fed, is that the populations naturally reduce and eventually die out. It's a long-term method of eradication, but effective.

However, the programs must be managed properly. If people keep feeding and aren't diligent about fixing them, it's a huge problem. Trap-spay/neuter-release programs actually tend to be more effective than euthanasia programs or trap-adopt programs, b/c by releasing the cat back you ensure that there isn't space in the urban ecosystem for another cat, or multiple cats, to move in, however it does mean managing the colony's resources so that they aren't able to support extra cats moving in. Most colonies we dealt with were closed enough that within 5 years or so of TNRing the cats the populations died out on their own as 'closed' colonies. (Stray and feral cats have shorter life spans, obviously)

The problem is, at least in a city (my feral experience is limited to urban), is there is always people feeding stray cats, letting their unfixed cats out to roam, etc, and creating new stray and eventually feral populations. People feed stray cats b/c they feel bad for them, don't want them to starve, etc, but by feeding without spay/neuter, they create ideal breeding conditions, populations explode, and then people continue to feed the larger populations. Larger feral populations also, in my experience, tend to have more FIV/FeLV problems as well.

eta: when i ran the trap-spay/neuter-return program, we had the opportunity to bring in a couple of new colonies as we'd had a few die out and/or reach the level where maintenance/keeping an eye on them was all that was needed. one of my main requirements for bringing a colony under the care of the rescue was investigating if it was being fed by somebody (irresponsible), and if so, whether they would come on board with our method of management. generally i would try to subsume any feeders into our rescue and they would then work within our program, which was effective (managed colonies generally had volunteers watching them on a daily/multiple times a week basis, so any other human intervention would be noted). the only exception i ever made with respect to working in a colony we did not have entirely under our control was a massive colony with a very serious FeLV (which is easily transmitted) problem.

For me, and not everyone got this, especially people who just love cats without thinking - but my goal was to eradicate the populations. I support TNR b/c, at least in urban areas, it is the most effective way of doing so.

 Quote: Jennifer Mullen

Feral cats cannot be tamed - true feral cats, anyways. Most cats that people describe as feral are actually stray cats, or friendly semi-ferals.

That's been my experience, as well. True ferals can be downright dangerous if you attempt to, or have to, handle them...like a bomb going off in your hands.

I agree-- it is frustrating. The only trouble is here you have to pay a fee to drop off the animal. I'd be happy to trap and drop off at a shelter but I'm not that wealthy...

My neighbors actually brought home a kitten on purpose, but then didn't spay her. She had a litter as soon as she went into her first heat. Afterwards I asked off-hand "so I guess you'll probably be getting her spayed soon now that her kittens are grown?" They ignored the question completely. Very frustrating since they all hang out in my front yard all day long.

The people that I was referring to are not feeding ferals or colonies. It is always just one stray cat that wanders in to their yard (in my neighbor's case, she said the cat was at the house when they moved in). The cats in question are friendly, just homeless.

For goodness sake... take it to the humane society before it dies a horrible death, and give it a chance at a good home.

One of the people i know of fed a female for 4-5 months while letting her sleep on their porch, then finally spayed her and found her a good home.

My other neighbors once had an 8 week old kitten on their roof at 1 AM in a Canadian February. The poor thing was crying loudly for some time. They didn't answer their door (well, it was 1 Am on a weekday) so we got a ladder and rescued it. I let him sleep in a dog crate in my basement (my dogs would have happily eaten him) and took him to the shelter the next morning. I don't think he was there 2 days before getting adopted.

Where I live feral cat colonies aren't a problem that I know of. People just let their cats loose, or leave them behind when they move, and nice people feed them but don't get them off the streets. I live on the busiest road in town, too. I guess I could take responsibility here - I could have taken that cat to the shelter, but didn't. Poor thing, I wish I had stepped up for her.

And I definitely agree that I could do without my neighbor's cats on my cars and in my flowerbeds.

I guess it's that, a few cats can be how a colony starts.

Sarah, it's true. Mostly we'd bring the cats in still in the traps (they'd be in usually overnight) and the vets would open the trap so that the cat went straight into the box for sedation.