Uncontrolled Community Cat Colonies and some History!!!!

Our local communities are full of cats without owners.  They are everywhere: in community parks, back allies of shopping centers, around fast food restaurants, endemic in trailer parks, abandoned in residential neighborhoods, found anywhere there is a food source and shelter, and anyplace that seems appropriate to drop-off unwanted cats with the assumption that they can survive on their own or someone else will care for them.  There are hundreds of them surviving on the edge of existence, most probably there are thousands.

This population is out of control.  Most unspayed females produce a litter of 4-6 kittens once or twice a year.  And those kittens begin their ability to procreate on their own at 5-6 months of age. This is staggering growth and needs to receive our attention and control efforts.

Stillwater Cat Haven's involvement to monitor and control non-owned communities of feral and abandoned cats and kittens began in the year 2000.  Our first effort was to TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) and stabilize a colony size living in the Anderson River Park Maintenance Yard; cats there had been allowed to exist until the numbers grew to an unacceptable level and they were then trapped and given to the Haven Humane Society, most likely to be euthanized.  We continued our work and our 501(c)(3) non-profit status developed in 2011.  In 2017 we received a year's TNR Grant from Best Friends for 250 cat spay and neuters which we shared with several partners.  Since our beginning Stillwater has spayed and neutered 1500 cats/kittens which limited the population growth at their community colony locations.

These efforts over the years have helped stabilize and support the non-owned community cat situation in our area, but we have come to realize that the problems of community cat numbers and living conditions exceed our capacity to reduce the overall problem.  Public funding assistance to Haven Humane has been inadequate and results in their low priority and their limited willingness and/or ability to support those involved.

Haven Humane’s current $45.00 feral cat fee for testing, spaying/neutering and giving rabies vaccinations becomes a very significant cost when groups of 10-15 non-owned cats become a target for control. The supplemental feeding and monitoring expenses of neutered/stabilized colonies become significant as the number of locations increase.  These costs require the committment of individual residents and non-profit tax exempt organizations.  Occasionally there can be grant supports, but their inconsistent availability adds to the financial difficulties and an organized progress toward colony control. Greater, consistent government support would be of great benefit to this community problem.

Other communities have begun to address this situation.  Views are changing for the better, from wanting to get rid of all the cats to participating in Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) with the responsibility to maintain the colony by providing food and shelter and care as needed.  It has been shown previously that removing a colony or even part of one creates voids for new cats to fill their places and will NOT provide a solution to an increasing number of cats.  Killing them is pointless if replacement cats will be moving in.  Where TNR and colony maintenance are practiced, the cat population is stabilized and relaxed without breeding competition and is healthier because of the monitoring support.  Citizen complaints decrease, and fewer cats are killed in animal shelters.

We need to implement these practices here, find more groups to come help with TNR, and help Haven adapt to the major problems of too many “community cats” by taking in unwanted pets from citizens without the significant fees.  Haven is causing people with limited finances to abandon their pets and add to the community cat population. As Alley Cat Rescue in Washington DC states (www.saveacat.org) “Our animal shelters should assist ALL animals but they often tell people: ‘Don’t feed them. They will go away.’  We have heard this comment occurs currently at the Haven Humane Society.  This is clearly NOT a solution; the cats in search of a new location can be starving and malnourished, and will still continue to have litters.” Trap-Neuter-Return is a preferred answer!!!!!

Haven and the County Animal Control are the only official public agencies with responsibility for animal control and their priority for dealing with non-owned cats are limited, primarily justified by their financial limitations.  While these public representatives struggle with a number of difficult issues greater than uncontrolled community cat colonies, this situation should be acknowledged and given a higher priority and additional financial support.

Written by Don and Joan Neptune, founders of Stillwater Cat Haven, 365-4861