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Helping Feral Cats, Part 3: What You Can Do For Feral Cats

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by: Russell
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This is the third in a three-part series on feral cats. In this article, I discuss what we can do to help feral colonies and unsocializable ferals.In Part 1, "feral" is defined. In Part 2, I give some pointers on how to socialize a feral or semi-feral cat.

I have been working with feral cats for about ten years. I have a colony that I tend to. It has ranged in size from ten to twenty five cats, with the average being seventeen cats. I have had a few great success stories, where the cat has found a home and lived happily ever after. Unfortunately, many more stories have not-so-happy endings. I call the colony, Forlorn Ferals. I built a web site for them, in order to help other feral cats and the humans that care about them. I am affiliated with Alliance for Stray Animals and People, Washington, DC. Joanna Harkin, the founder of ASAP, graciously extended the offer after reading a post I placed, concerning obtaining nonprofit status for my colony.

The U.S. currently has a population of about sixty to one-hundred million feral cats and the shelters and animal control facilities are killing approximately six million domestic cats each year. A feral female is capable of producing twenty-four to thirty kittens a year. These three facts add up to a very large over population problem. Some communities have imposed strict laws covering licensing and breeding of all pets. Some communities, which have done mass euthanasia, just find that in a short period, they have the same problem again.

I believe the only humane way of dealing with the problem of feral cat over population is to establish trap, neuter/spay, release programs. Non-lethal control is accepted by many well-respected institutions and organizations including the American Veterinary Medical Association, Cornell, and Tufts University veterinary schools, and the Doris Day Animal League. England and Denmark started much of the work in this field in the early 1970s and where the organization Cat Action Trust established extensive spay/neuter services for caretakers. Other countries, including South Africa and Australia, have been using the trap-neuter-return (TNR) control method for many years. TNR has been implemented successfully time and again in cities throughout the US.

One must take into account that it is not the cat's fault for all this over population. The fault lies with humans, the irresponsible owners, people that want their children to witness the miracle of birth, the ones that think it's nature's way, breeders who are in it only for money, and people who say, "it's only a cat." As you can no doubt tell, I have a hard time dealing with these types of people.

Alley Cat Allies, Washington, DC, and The Feral Cat Coalition, San Diego, CA are two of the forerunners in helping ferals. They have supplied much of the information you have read in this series of articles.

Education, spay-and-neuter clinics, TNR programs for managing feral colonies are all ways to help ferals. There are rescue groups and colony caretakers in all areas that are in need of help. They need people to volunteer their time, food, supplies, and donations to continue their efforts. If you want to help, there are many ways, in which you may do this, including making sure your own animals are altered and properly taken care of.

This is the last article of this series on feral cats and I'd like to leave you with something I hope you will like as much as I did.

A Prayer For All Animals
By Albert Schweitzer

Hear our humble prayer, O God, for our friends the animals, especially for animals who are suffering; for any that are hunted or lost or deserted or frightened or hungry; for all that must be put to death. We entreat for them all Thy mercy and pity, and for all those who deal with them we ask a heart of compassion and gentle hands and kindly words. Make us, ourselves, to be true friends to animals and so to share the blessings of the merciful.