Kill the Problem, Not the Cats
Author: Sherrie WalkerPublished on: Oct 1, 2000
In Kanab, Utah, within sight of the white cliffs of Zion National Park, stands Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. Over 1,800 dogs, cats and other animals make their homes here, most for a short time, but some, unsuitable for adoption, will live out their lives in peace and safety in this beautiful place.
One group of such "unadoptable" animals lives in WildCats Village, four buildings which are home to approximately 300 "feral" cats. Feral cats are the wild offspring of domestic cats, which were either abandoned by their owners or simply allowed to breed uncontrolled. These feral cats are not just "stray" pet cats. They are distrustful of humans and cannot usually be socialized, once they are more than a few months old. The ferals at WildCats Village will never lack for shelter, warmth, and food. Unfortunately, this situation is the exception rather than the rule because sanctuaries such as Best Friends are full to overflowing. Best Friends, for example, can take only a few new ferals each month, while receiving requests to take as many as 600 cats, both domestic and feral.
So what is to be done with the other 60 million feral cats in the U.S. That's right - 60 million! Says Sally Mackler, one of the founding members of the Feral Cat Coalition, "They're not wildlife, and they're not pets, so they don't get the advantages of either group." Traditionally, the "solution" to the feral cat problem was eradication of the colony, sometimes by grossly inhumane methods. Even when more humane euthanasia is used, however, eradication simply does not work. If it did, we wouldn't have 60 million feral cats running around now. The reason eradication doesn't work is a biological phenomenon called "the vacuum effect." Whenever a number of cats are removed from an area, more cats move in and quickly breed back up to previous levels.
A program that HAS proved effective, however, is what is known in cat circles as "TNR" - trap, neuter, and return. Cats are territorial creatures. An altered cat will guard his territory and his food source against new cats who try to move in, and, being altered, he will not add to the population of the colony. This method was first tried on a large cat population at Stanford University in 1989. In response to an announced plan to trap and kill approximately 500 cats on the campus, students, faculty and staff formed the Stanford Cat Network. They presented a plan to trap, neuter, release, and manage the cats; and as a result, Stanford now has a healthy population of cats holding steady at around 300. Other colleges have adopted similar programs, including Campus Cat Coalition at the University of Texas, and Friends of Campus Cats at the University of Washington.
Following close on the heels of the Stanford Cat Network was Alley Cat Allies, a national feral cat network founded in 1990, and Feral Cat Coalition in San Diego, CA, founded in 1992. Both if these organizations are dedicated to controlling the feral cat population through TNR and are eager to share their expertise with individuals and grassroots groups with similar goals.
Some people contend that the TNR method has one serious drawback - the cats are still around, spraying, fighting, mating noisily, and spreading disease. Neutering eliminates most of the objectionable behavior exhibited by unaltered cats, and, before the cats are released, they are treated for any diseases they may have and vaccinated against rabies. In addition, ferals in a well-managed colony tend to remain healthy after release.
Others object to cats because of their supposed predation on songbirds and other animals. Over 60 studies on several continents have all come to the same three conclusions: (1) Cats are opportunistic feeders. They will eat what they can obtain most easily, which is more likely to be garbage or hand-outs than birds. (2) Birds make up only a small percentage of the diet of cats who have to hunt for food. They much prefer rodents. (3) In spite of cats' preference for rodents, rats and mice abound, proving that cats can prey on a population without destroying it. Why, then, are songbirds declining in some places? The answer, according to biologist Dr. Robert Berg, is habitat destruction by humans. In 1992, the declining songbird population in Golden Gate Park was blamed on ferals, when, in fact, the real cause was a landscaping program that had destroyed much of the birds' habitat.
Perhaps you live in a neighborhood that has no feral cat colony. If you are a taxpayer, you still need to be concerned about this problem. In the first 4 1/2 years of operation, the Feral Cat Coalition sterilized over 7,000 cats, reducing cat impounds and euthanasia by 50% and saving the county nearly $1 million! Controlling feral cat populations through trapping, neutering, and releasing is not only humane, it's cost-effective. Let's quit responding to half-baked scare stories and begin making intelligent decisions based on fact. Or, as Sarah Hartwell, who has written many articles about feral conditions, put it, let's "kill the problem, not the cats."
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