In short, because cats need your help. No cat asks to be homeless. Feral cats face many challenges, and you can improve their lives by feeding and neutering them. Often people start feeding cats with the best of intentions, but the consequences of feeding without sterilization quickly lead to a population explosion. That`s why it`s so important to get cats spayed or neutered as soon as possible. If you can only commit to feeding for a short time, ask your neighbors, colleagues, or others if they can help. You`ll be surprised to learn how many people care for feral cats. Remember that if you want to feed feral cats, you need to have them sterilized. My aunt lives on a farm overrun with cats. What can you do to help? Wow, it would be great to have a city overrun with rats and mice. I agree that there are too many cats in Albany, but only because of irresponsible pet owners and don`t want to fix their cats, especially because they can`t afford it if they shouldn`t really have a pet. I also only have indoor cats, but what about the 2 outdoor cats I take care of because someone abandoned them.
I had them repaired and shot and they keep the rodents in our neighborhood under control. I try to clean up after them, and my neighbours know if there are any problems I want to fix. The problem is not the cats, it`s the fact that people don`t act responsibly, they should all be fixed and maybe even allowed, but to the extent that they get rid if they can`t be well adopted, then I think I feel like it`s just wrong. I try to be a responsible pet owner, and I wish others were too, but the problem is not the cats, but the owners who refuse to fix them and be responsible for them. So why make cats suffer when they`ve all suffered enough from being abused or used for horrible things like dog fighting and abandoned when people have a new baby or move. Catch them, fix them, hit them, if they are wild, they have their place in the community. Yes, keep the kittens indoors if you can, but don`t blame them for wanting to pot in a comfortable, freshly plowed garden, if a problem fills a children`s pool with sand, they would much rather go there. Unless you`d rather have a terrible rat and mouse problem that does a lot more damage and is much harder to control. So I say, make a law against animal ownership that you can`t really afford to give a good home because it`s the people who caused the problem, not the animals. If you`re outside the city limits, shoot the fucker. I had to do the same with irritating raccoons attacking my cats. TNR is the compassionate approach/solution.
TNR teaches compassion and responsible care for cats. While TNR actually reduces the number of cat breeds, education about the importance of sterilization reaches the entire community. Capture and kill teaches young and old that it is normal to produce unwanted offspring and then kill the surplus without leaving room for education or compassion for life. Catching and killing does not solve the problem. Capture and destruction have been practiced for many years (as the only option available) and have not worked. Throughout the years that this approach has been practiced, the cat population has continued to explode. New chats replace deleted chats. When cats are captured and removed from an area, new cats settle in to enjoy the food source.
Alley Cat Allies, a national network for feral cats, calls this phenomenon the vacuum effect. I don`t have cats, but my neighborhood does. The dog`s fines if your dog goes out are terrible. $1000 really. And you want to impose this kind of fine on cats. Who have been outside all their lives? Real!?! How about getting rid of the dog law and creating a real one. Old lady who swallowed the fly scenario. Joking, but seriously, grab the ferrets, fix them and release them. You have a job to do. Maybe charge a fee for captured cats that are not fixed? I don`t know? Oh and far away with dog fees.
The dogs go out. Why punish a family for their dog very quickly? How do you know if a cat is really wild or just a scared and abandoned cat? Cats don`t really control rats. Any city that has a rat problem also has a terrible wildcat problem. Rats often eat the remaining food for wild cats. The key to fighting rodents is hygiene, not free-ranging cats. These are the terms used for sterilization of cats. Cats are sterilized by removing their reproductive organs. Male cats are sterilized or neutered. Both surgeries require general anesthesia and are performed by a veterinarian.
After listening to the concerns of community residents, the Oregon city creates a program that catches cats, sterilizes them, and then releases them where they came from. I agree with regulating cats as we do for dogs. I`m tired of my irresponsible neighbors dropping their neighborhood cats to defecate in everyone`s backyard or wandering the street and getting hit by a car. He is not a responsible pet owner. If I wanted a cat, I would have one and it would stay in the house. I don`t need you to show my garden! TNR works. Information on how TNR works is starting to accumulate. The practice of TNR has been repeatedly shown to reduce feral cat populations. Major animal rights organizations have become more proactive in defending TNR, including the Humane Society of the United States and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).
For more information and specific examples, visit the Alley Cat Allies website in www.alleycat.org. For feral cats, it is often the most compassionate choice to allow the cat to live on its own territory, where food and shelter are provided. Of course, the cat must be sterilized. To gain the trust of a wild cat that you feed, slow movements, a soft voice and a regular feeding program begin the process of gaining the cat`s trust. Move to the rhythm of the cat. Do not rush to touch the cat. If he wants to be petted, he will let you know when he is ready for this step or more. Never try to catch the cat, otherwise you risk hurting yourself and deserving trust. A caregiver is a person who has taken responsibility for a feral cat or colony. The caregiver is committed to feeding the cats permanently, ensuring they are neutered, can provide additional shelter, and provides ongoing health care if necessary. Also, keep in mind that nothing is harder than trying to stop people from feeding cats once they know there are cats in need. People risk their jobs, homes and even bodily injury to prevent animals from starving.
Attempts to wipe out feral cats by banning feeding usually result in suffering for cats and increased conflicts with feeders, but not much else. As readers of this column know, I`m an ornithologist, so I don`t like domestic cats that kill birds. But that`s not all. Wildlife rehabilitation clinics care for native wildlife mutilated by cats, from birds and lizards to chipmunks, cottontails and hares. That`s what nature designed cats to do – kill things. My boy, I understand the frustration. I hate dogs trapped in my garden. A cat is very rude to this lady. There is a cat repellent. We solved some of our cat problems by keeping it indoors while the birds are at our feeders, mostly all day.
He agrees with this arrangement because cats are nocturnal. We let him out all night because he catches rats. We live just 100 meters from 5 restaurants. The exterminator said that`s why there are so many rats in my neighborhood. We fought them constantly until Fluff arrived. I do not recommend keeping all cats indoors while we have this problem. Rats are intelligent. They are almost impossible to kill.
“The way I see it is partnering with our community and looking for local volunteers who are passionate about helping these situations,” Dehaan said. “They`re going to go out and locate these colonies, and then they`re going to develop strategies on how to use the traps and collect the cats.” Years ago, I went to a man`s house in Sisters to help him catch bats roaming free in his house. Somehow, they entered his living room.