We can live with feral cats

Today is National Feral Cat Day, a day for us to think about the outdoor cats in our neighborhoods. Who are these cats and how did they get here? Feral cats live in every community and they usually exist in family groups called colonies. These cats are the same species as our companion cats, healthy for the most part, but they are not social and cannot be accepted into homes, so they are routinely killed by the millions in animal shelters.
 
American people with usually big hearts would be shocked to know that over 70 percent of cats who enter animal shelters are feral cats brought in and killed right away. Some of these cats include lost and stray cats belonging to someone and feral cats from cared-for colonies that have been neutered or spayed. When a feral cat from a colony is spayed or neutered, the vet normally cuts a tip off the right ear to show the cat has been altered.
 
It has been proven that it is less expensive to sterilize a feral cat than to have animal control impound, house, kill it and dispose of the body. In communities not practicing trap, neuter and return (TNR), more than 30 years of killing cats hasn't reduced the feral cat population at all. When feral cats are removed, other cats move into the territory. This is called the vacuum effect.
 
There are many states that have helped this situation. For example, The Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon's volunteer veterinary technicians have altered 30,000 outdoor cats since the program started, preventing hundreds of thousands of cats being added to the feral population.
 
They only work with feral cats who have caregivers and charge $25, but if the caregivers don't have it, they are not turned away. According to a recent issue of Best Friends magazine, Reno Humane Society traps, spays and neuters feral cats and that has cut down on the explosion of animals in their state.
 
Also Oklahoma City, St. Paul and other cities have started to help this situation with volunteer vets and sometimes the humane societies take part in the programs. NMHP in Utah teamed up with West Valley City on a TNR program and their research showed the city saved between $30,000 and $60,000 a year by this program.
 
The county funded the program in Orange County Animal Services in Florida and from 1995 to 2001 saved $650,000. New York City's Feral Cat Council has had only 1 ear-tipped cat euthanized in three years, because of an illness.
 
Many people have issue with wildlife and feral cats. Numerous studies have found that humans are to blame for the declining bird species and habitat destruction with rampant developing and related pollution, not cats.
 
Forget the old adage never to feed a stray cat. People who feed the cats sometimes get blamed for the feral cat problem, but those cats are out there anyway. The hungrier they are, the bolder they get and the more neighborhood problems they cause.
 
The feral cat situation is in dire need of help in our community. There are numerous caregivers of feral cat colonies all over Yuma County and the surrounding area who go to great expense and effort to feed, trap, neuter and release them.
 
The idea of "don't feed them and they'll go away" just doesn't work. And apparently the idea of Yuma Humane Society killing 600 or 700 animals a month hasn't worked either. People need to become aware of the situation and try to find a solution. The best solution is if the local vets pitched in to help, and often this happens, but that isn't always the case.
 
I, along with four other women started Planned Pethood a few years back and we do a lot toward helping this situation. We know of most of the caregiving colonies and support them with free spay and neutering but we are a small organization and depend only on donations to pay the vets.
 
I have a colony of about 15 cats who have all been altered and although my neighborhood was aghast at first, they realize now that the cats don't yowl and fight at night, don't spray (hardly) and have changed from terrified wild cats to healthy animals that catch mice, gophers and keep snakes away.

Yuma Humane Society is planning to charge residents who bring in stray or feral cats in 2009. This will cause untold suffering because RV parks, mobile home parks and just ordinary people who don't want cats around will turn to less humane ways of eliminating them rather than bear this expense.
 
Together, we can change the policies that kill feral cats and kittens. We can help people understand how effective the humane solution, trap, neuter, return can be. To learn more and find tools to help, go to http://alleycat..org, http://feralcats.com and www.bestfriends.org.


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Pinkie Paranya is Winterhaven author who champions the cause of feral cats.