Re: The ethics of feeding stray cats (feed, vet, traveling)
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Totally depends on you, where you live, your neighbors, and your spouse. My father started feeding some stray kittens in his backyard in NJ back in 1991- started off as maybe 5 or 6 kittens. I took one in when I got my own place out of college, and Chaos lived with me a long, happy life until she was just shy of 19. That's the happiest part of this story.
My dad started to take the strays in to get spayed/neutered. Great! But his plan was to keep them inside until their stitches healed, and then release them. The release never happened, and despite my mother objecting, he kept the cats anyway. At one point I think he had maybe 13 inside the house and still fed countless others outside. My mother got fed up and moved out.
My father has an obsessive/compulsive personality, and it got to the point where his whole life revolved around feeding these cats. He wouldn't travel anywhere, since he didn't trust anyone in or near the house, and was afraid he would be reported to the authorities. When we moved to FL, he visited I think three times in the 17 years we lived there, and it would be for barely 24 hours, since he had to get back to feed the cats.
He was just recently taken to court and faced possible jail time and fines threatened unless he worked with animal control to trap and remove the cats. The neighbors got tired of having dozens of cats roaming around, with the smell of urine and feces. I have been telling him for years to just close the blinds to the back door and not look back, that chances are someone else would feed them. (The vet that he took the cats to, who gave him a break on the spaying/neutering, offered him the same advice years ago.) He still has three inside that he takes care of, but he is amazed at all the money he is saving by not buying food for all these cats. It just broke his heart to do that, but looking back he is relieved and sorry he waited so long.
Speaking of ferals, I came across these pics yesterday while scanning photos. I did a lot of rescue/fostering/rehoming in Dallas. For a few months a few years ago, I lived near the downtown Dallas area and, of course, there are many ferals. Those familiar with ferals know that a colony manages itself and does not keep growing. My neighborhood had a smaller colony. I started feeding them and got busy gathering litters and rehoming. This is one of them and the whole crew went to the same home. I worked with a man who had just moved his family to a country setting. They loved animals and wanted lots including cats. They already had a litter from a pregnant Siamese someone abandoned when they moved. I brought her in two days prior to her giving birth. Had her spayed before rehoming and this man took the litter. Their plan was to keep kittens inside until six months old and then while watching, introduce them to a fabulous barn prepared for animals and eventually let them go in and out. They were doing exactly that and very willing to take this new litter.
I caught the beautiful tuxedo and had him neutered. He was semi-friendly. Mama kitty was so wise she continued evading me during my few months there. The other evasive fella was a brown tabby (no pic) and he was very clever. What broke my heart was the way the tuxedo *and* the tabby followed me as I was back and forth to the car with things on the last day of moving. All doors were open since my cats were already at the new place. The ferals had never attempted coming into my fenced court yard but they did, apparently knowing that I was leaving. Back and forth we went and they even came inside but still no touch! I spoke with two neighbors that would continue feeding them and trying to catch mama.
P.S. I put the sisal away when they were done playing in it.
I feed cats that aren't mine but I know darn well they have homes in the neighborhood, they just like my house better because they get attention and they know other cats hang out here. Sometimes there is fights and growling but it's not unusual to see a couple cats in my yard, keeping their distance yet coexisting, including my own.
One stray has been in the neighborhood forever and several families have "adopted" him as much as they can. He won't stay in a house ever but he likes to sleep on patio furniture, come in right along with my (and other neighbors) cats as if he owns the place, but right back out once it's established he's only there for food. I don't know what I would do if a whole gaggle of cats showed up though. Once I kept an eye out on an elderly cat that was abandoned and another time cared for one that just showed up but had a paralyzed tail and was incontinent (wanted to stay in the house though so she learned to sleep on a towel and stayed there most of the time...good kitty), after months I ended up taking them both to a no kill shelter since I was NOT prepared to be responsible. But I knew by then they were both good, nice, healthy-as-they-could-be cats.
I am curious: how does a colony keep itself from growing?
I am waiting to hear the answer too. If I had to guess, it would be that the males kill some of the kittens and/or they chase away the extra males. I have no basis for those assumptions but I know, from the ones I have been feeding for 3 years, that cats come and go pretty regularly. I would feed a certain cat for a long time and suddenly they would disappear.
It is sad that all cats don't have excellent homes, with caring owners. But it is equally sad that people, out of love for cats, will feed ferals, and allow the cats to live a meager existence, barely on the edge of survival. The cats have no health care, and breed because there is food available. Thus, perpetuating the problem.
If you feed feral cats, at least get some cat cages, and trap them, have them fixed, and released. Feeding them, with doing some type of population control is very irresponsible INMO.
I have fed stray cats, and then felt responsible for them, and found them homes. I have never fed strays, and just felt that was it. If I feed a cat, he is mine, and I am going to take care of it, forever. I have re homed several strays I have found. I have found pregnant cats, fostered them, and then found homes for the Mom and the Kittens.
But my limit is one cat. He is the one I take care of.
I am waiting to hear the answer too. If I had to guess, it would be that the males kill some of the kittens and/or they chase away the extra males. I have no basis for those assumptions but I know, from the ones I have been feeding for 3 years, that cats come and go pretty regularly. I would feed a certain cat for a long time and suddenly they would disappear.
Don
I can only speak about my experience with the feral colony at my workplace, where the number of cats has stayed pretty much the same for 7 years. I have never seen any animosity or aggressive behavior from the males toward any of the kittens born there, so I don't think that's been happening. It's more of a case of when they get older they move on. I'm sure some have probably got sick & died, but if so they were well hid and I didn't find them. The oldest cats in the colony right now are about three years old and are females. I've noticed that the females tend to stay around longer than the males. There's a 5 year old female that used to be part of the colony at my shop. Two years ago she just packed up and moved to the property next door (where she's equally well fed), leaving behind her offspring, and all but maybe one of those have also moved on. I'm not sure why the number seems to stay the same year after year. The property is quite large, and there are plenty of places for shelter, etc., so it's not overcrowding issue. I don't think it's lack of food either. I've always made sure there was enough food for all who show up.
Perhaps after one or two generations of offspring, they feel it's time to go somewhere else.
She bounces around outside, flees in terror at quick movements on my part, and doesn't behave rationally. I've seen this before in cats. She's either been abused, or maybe was abandoned because of her behavior.
I've seen cats that were mentally deranged before, hyperactive, irrational, and while there may be some physical cause that is curable, sometimes I do think there is a brain dysfunction of some sort.
I'm not sure how one can label a cat as "deranged.". What you are describing sounds like a cat that is fearful and it sounds like the behavior is perfectly rational, at least with my experience with feral and stray cats. It sounds behavioral to me, but even if it did have a neurological problem I'm not sure why it couldn't make a perfectly good pet, if someone had patience and put effort into it. Not saying that *you* should move it in. I just don't see why this cat should be deemed unfit for domestic life.
Is this somehow a bad thing I'm doing? There is a shed out back they can sleep in, if they want to, and I intend to go on taking care of them, at least with food, and any others that show up hungry.
How can it possibly be a bad thing?..showing compassion to any animal is goooood I would think. Imagine how great it must be for the hungry little ones to have found someone who makes their lives easier...course they might bring some buddies by...Allowing them to sleep in your shed is very kind, they'll reward you by keeping away the rats and mice...Don't ever feel that showing kindness towards others (humans or not) is a bad thing to do.
Same here. It is a little frustrating because there are so many out there, but you have to just be realistic and realize you can't save them all. You can only help a small percentage out, but that is at least something.
My hat is off to the folks from rescue groups who spend a lot of their free time and money trapping them and finding good homes for them. Those folks are saints in my book.
Don
I agree, and if you can't help them out by finding them homes, or taking them in yourself, what's wrong with giving them something nice in their lives.(a meal they don't have to scrounge or hunt for.)
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