Monday, September 15, 2008
Cat colonies, once cleared, quickly grow again
From the RoundTable blog
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Diane Novak
Novak is an animal reiki practitioner, volunteers with Angels of Assisi and the Franklin County Humane Society and writes a monthly column called Paw Prints for The Senior News.
As a trap-neuter-return advocate, I would like to speak to Roanoke Times readers who write impassioned pleas for the destruction of feral cat communities. The belief is that the eradication of wild cats will be the immediate solution to our declining bird populations.
If that were true, federal laws protecting bird species would address the control of feral cats rather than the control of human behavior. It is apparent that human activities are the real threat to American wildlife. We are clearing land, cutting down timber and destroying an environment that is theirs as well as ours. Add airplanes and cell towers and it's amazing we have any bird life at all.
As a bird and wildlife enthusiast, I understand the emotional response; but to kill one species to save another is myopic, not to mention ineffective.
There are always some cats that will evade animal or pest control traps. The cats that survive the eradication effort breed back up to the carrying capacity of that vicinity. Even if a site's entire cat colony is removed, newly abandoned cats (happens every day) or those migrating from other colonies will move in to take advantage of food and shelter sources. This is called the vacuum effect.
If you are an animal control officer, you may have wondered why you are continually summoned back to trap at the same area year after year. Truth is, instead of reducing cat numbers, trap and kill is simply making room for new cats to move in and begin the breeding process over again.
And how much does this unsuccessful program cost the community? Well, by the time you use animal control employees, vehicles and gas to set traps, check traps, and transport the trapped cats to shelters, then house and feed them for five days only to destroy them, you've spent quite a bit of taxpayer money.
This is why a more fiscally sound approach to feral cat populations is to trap, neuter and return the animals to a managed colony where they are fed by people concerned about their welfare.
To those who frighten cat caretakers with misuse of the word "abandonment" in the section of Virginia law that speaks to animal welfare: The code makes clear that the only people guilty of abandonment are pet owners who leave their cats behind at trailer parks, apartment complexes and dumpsters when they grow tired of them.
