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I'm perfectly ok with growing colonies of feral cats. Their population will normalize based on available food and predators. That is as it should be. I would like to see TNR for squirrels however.
I think "available food" is key here- if people just keep feeding the colonies and not TNR'ing them, they will continue to grow as long as there's food available.
I'm perfectly ok with growing colonies of feral cats. Their population will normalize based on available food and predators. That is as it should be. I would like to see TNR for squirrels however.
I wish we had a tnr for cats around here. I think we're a dumping ground for people who don't want their cats. Lots of kittens. One morning everyone was looking out the window in my room and there was a tiny kitten sitting on the trashcan. Never saw it or siblings or mom again.
Ah squirrles. I have a bank of trees on the side of my yard and a squirrel spent the winter in the attic, dang they are noisy...
I'm perfectly ok with growing colonies of feral cats. Their population will normalize based on available food and predators. That is as it should be. I would like to see TNR for squirrels however.
Good Lord, you sound like my neighbor who feeds this colony because he hates squirrels! Well, I happen to like squirrels, which I see much less of. I also happen to see NO rabbits, which I am missing greatly. My other neighbor watched 3 of these cats chase away a fox! Sorry, I'd rather see natural wildlife than an insane amount of domestic cats gone feral.
I see a world with feral cats running everywhere, just like squirrels are now. Sunning themselves on the sidewalk, narrowly escaping cars and serenading in the evening with their delightful calls of passion and territoriality. I see garbage cans tipped over and bird feeders empty and cat feces on my pool deck instead of deer.
The eventual point of TNR is to stop the growth of a colony and have it "die" a natural death and have no feral cats.
That said I was at the vets with a trapped cat and a guy from a nearby city was telling me that Springfield OH was swarming with feral cats, as are so many places (I live in the nicer eastern suburb areas of Dayton of which the poorer urban areas are overrun).
People ditch their unneutered cats. They move out and leave them behind, drive them somewhere and drop them off, just kick them out and quit taking care of them.....As opposed to b*tching about feral cats vs. wildlife why not ***** about people ditching their unneutered cats. I've TNR'd 6 so far on my own dime, plus had one put down (100.00 plus 13.00 for cremation) with 2 more to go. Until someone moves out and ditches another one.
I'd personally love to wring my 1200.00 bucks out the people who are responsibles f*cking necks. Not so much for the money but also the satisfaction.
I'd also love for ditching an animal to be a FELONY! Subject to never being able to own a pet again. Period dot.
And as we speak today.........I am for the third time trapping feral cats.
This time I am praying the cycle ends.
You see I live by a farm where people do just drop off cats.
WE use to enjoy the birds and bunnies at our home location but one year " Big Momma" came along.
She was pregnant and begging for birds to arrive at my feeder.
It was hard to keep up with fixing the cats but we did.
Sometimes we missed the magical hours before one would get pregnant again.
This last four were found in a boat stored on my grounds. That mother cat had just been fixed also, but these were born just before.
Now, finally ........all should be fixed.
Then it is the matter of most of them don't make it for all that long......Poor babies.
Cost is high, for sure. We need a pet nanny to feed them in the winters because we are gone, south. We have to leave warm areas, and that is hard to do with the winters of PA.
The food, the fixing......
This was set at our doorstep.....
One last kitten to trap this eve. Whom ever said the "runt" would be the least smart is wrong.
The only one not entering the trap is the runt right now.
We need him.........
I have to end this cycle here, and now.......
Only problem is when another car goes by that farm and leaves a cat again.
It is such a sad life for a cat, really..
They need a nice warm home and windowsill to sleep on.
This entire process breaks my heart again and again.
( here he comes.....pray)
I wish we had a tnr for cats around here. I think we're a dumping ground for people who don't want their cats. Lots of kittens. One morning everyone was looking out the window in my room and there was a tiny kitten sitting on the trashcan. Never saw it or siblings or mom again.
And this is part of the problem. Why are you waiting for the mysterious someone to show up and do it? Your neighborhood, pitch in and take care of yourself!
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
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Originally Posted by wilson1010
I'm perfectly ok with growing colonies of feral cats. Their population will normalize based on available food and predators. That is as it should be. I would like to see TNR for squirrels however.
The idea that cats will find a natural equilibrium is probably sound, but only if there is a feral cat colony somewhere in a virgin forest with no human influence or interaction whatsoever.
People who study rock dove colonies in urban environments find that there is always a human input that enables a colony to overpopulate. The tipping point can be as small as one human. One little old lady in the park who distributes enough calories monthly to change 1,000 starving and dying birds into undernourished birds that can reproduce.
The same is true for cats, whether the human input is overt and willful or unintentional. In other words, there is no equilibrium in a human settlement. There is always enough food for an unnaturally large number of animals to get by.
The problem with TNR is that the timeframe for colony extinction is simply too long. If a good samaritan has the time and resources to sterilize 50% of a colony, then that was a waste of time and money because the remaining breeders can replace the number of sterilized animals three or four times before any meaningful attrition takes place. If that same person can get to >95%, now we're talking about something in terms of localized effectiveness - BUT - those sterilized animals will hold their respective places for a decade or more. A lot happens in ten years and unless the colony management is diligently prosecuted for a very, very long time, then the extinction point of the colony is indefinite and probably unattainable.
Purely from a cost-effectiveness standpoint, a standing kill order works at least as well if not better, but any attempt at management is largely futile without complete cooperation and/or participation on the part of the affected community and local government.
Well, someone had asked about the feral situation. Yes, the last kitten was captured and it was a female so thank goodness. Now 100% of the ferals are fixed.
One straggler showed up. I do see its ear clipped so this colony has stil 100% fixed.
I still think I need a sign by the farm saying......." No drops off here please."
What a sad suitation. I love my cats and would never abandon them to the wild. You guys are great for helping these cats
Still perhaps a cat is better off going into a wild state then being declawed, eating garbage pet food and being dumped off at a shelter/abused ect. Ferals at least don't have to worry about all that jazz.
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