Feral cats: The government fix–or the humane fix?

www life with cats.tv

Kathleen Stachowski   Other Nations

October 16th is National Feral Cat Day. That’s just under a month out, but forewarned is forearmed, and if feral cats aren’t on your radar now, perhaps they will be.

Feral cats (also called community cats) weren’t on my radar until my cousin Beth, a feral cat activist in Indiana, e-mailed to ask that I contact federal officials (via an action alert from Best Friends) about the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s role in undermining community trap-neuter-return–or release–(TNR) programs.

Yes, this is the same agency that claims the Northern Rockies wolverine warrants Endangered Species Act listing but is “precluded” (along with over 20 other warranted-but-precluded species and 250-some additional “candidate species” in need of protection) because the agency lacks resources and can’t make it a priority. Can’t list a rare carnivore who continues to be trapped in Montana–but can go after community TNR programs? This required investigation. I learned something about feral cats along the way.

I tend to think of feral cats as city cats, or maybe unsocialized barn-dwellers. Here in rural Montana, feral cats are otherwise known as mountain lions (ha ha). Wild domestic cats are rare to nonexistent, likely because they’re considered lunch by the predators in the ‘hood. But in other places, feral cats are the predators, and there’s the rub. More on that later.

Larkspur

My own two feline shelter stories, Larkspur and Juniper, never leave the house. Larkspur was on her way to feralhood when some kind soul caught her in a carport in Missoula and took her to the humane shelter as a wary, frightened sub-adult. Even after 8-1/2 years in our safe, loving home, she still panics and flees when we stride into the room too quickly. But she’s a purring love-sponge other times; imagining her as one of the wild legions helps put a face to the problem–helps me see that these aren’t just so many ferals, but individuals whose predicament we created and who deserve our assistance and compassion.

But compassion is not on the agenda when FWS teams up with The Wildlife Society (TWS), an international scientific and educational nonprofit (mission statement here), for the latter’s annual conference in November in Hawaii. A Fish & Wildlife Service-organized workshop description reads, in part,

“Feral and unrestrained domestic cats kill and estimated 1.4 million birds a day, every day—and at least as many small mammals and herps. This direct mortality is similar in scale to mortality caused by building collisions and far exceeds that caused by collisions with wind or communications towers, oil spills, or other sources on which conservation agencies invest time and money. Municipalities across the U.S. are being pressured by cat advocacy groups to adopt Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) programs in which voluntary caretakers feed cats 24/7 at feral/stray cat colonies, establishing populations of subsidized invasive predators that continue to depredate wildlife. ~Informing Local Scale Feral Cat Trap-Neuter-Release Decisions (scroll down at workshop list)

It’s important (and fair) to note that TWS is not a conservative politics/property rights group disguising as conservationists. They embrace global warming science, the Endangered Species Act, conservation of old growth forests, voluntary restraint in human population growth, and wolf restoration (“Restoring populations…to suitable habitats represents an opportunity to partially reverse a long history of persecution by humans”). They are scientists dedicated to the conservation of native wildlife populations (see all of their position statements here).

But along with scholars and scientists, it’s also fair to note that their governing council includes personnel from state fish and game agencies (including Wyoming, home of the Northern Rockies’ most onerous wolf hunt proposal). Their definition of wildlife management includes goals that run the gamut from enhancement of endangered species to sustainable harvest of game species to elimination of destructive introduced species. They are all about management. Influencing state and local animal welfare legislation is also on their agenda.

Just one revealing example: While calling for “individual animals (to be) treated ethically and humanely,” TWS supports fur trapping for fun and profit, recognizing “…the economic and recreational benefits of trapping.” In their smarmy treatment of animal rights, TWS cites the Public Trust Doctrine, “…based on the premise that wild animals are a public resource to be held in trust by the government for the benefit of all citizens. Animal rights advocates philosophically oppose this concept of wildlife as property…”

Wildlife as human property. Property, we know, must be defended from threats. Feral cats are exotic (non-native), invasive threats, according to TWS: “As a domesticated animal, cats have no native range and, therefore, are a non-native species in natural systems worldwide. In addition, native prey species often have no evolved defenses against this exotic predator, making the domestic cat a potential threat wherever it is introduced.” Into this hostile milieu a discussion of feral cat control will take place.

Forewarned is forearmed. If thwarting community TNR programs and replacing them with eradication is the goal, TNR supporters had better be on top of that game. (It’s likely that feral cat advocates already know this–it’s the rest of us who might need educating.) A purely emotional response (save the wild kitties!) won’t cut it when bird mortality, avian extinctions, and disease transmission are laid at the paws of feral cats and presented as scientific fact by a federal, taxpayer-funded agency.

Enter Vox Felina

According to its website, Vox Felina provides “…critical analysis of claims made in the name of science by those opposed to feral/free-roaming cats and trap-neuter-return (TNR).”

The impetus for Vox Felina was a series of events (the details of which will be the subject of numerous posts) that revealed (1) the lack of rigorous research related to the efficacy and impact of TNR, (2) the flawed science promoted by many TNR opponents, (3) the unbalanced—often dishonest—nature of the feral cat/TNR debate, and (4) the disastrous consequences of these circumstances.

On what basis is the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service presenting a full-day workshop to discourage community TNR programs? Many figures are cited by opponents of TNR–1.4 million birds a day killed by ferals and free-roaming domestic cats–the number cited by TWS; 160 million estimated feral cats killing about 500 million birds a year; at least 33 species of birds driven to extinction by feral cats, and so on. Vox Felina challenges these oft-cited numbers and assumptions in well-researched, heavily-footnoted posts. For starters, read the post titled “TWS + USFWS = WTF” here.

Who’s succeeding with TNR?

You’d think New York City would have the granddaddy of ’em all when it comes to feral cat issues, yet according to the New York City Feral Cat Initiative website, two private nonprofits–the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals and Neighborhood Cats–are successfully implementing TNR: “Our New York City Feral Cat Database shows that in neighborhoods throughout New York City, TNR is proving effective in humanely managing feral cat colonies and reducing their numbers over time.”

If The Big Apple can begin to get a successful handle on it, it should come as no surprise that other U.S. cities large and small are doing the same, from Dallas to D.C. to Ithaca, NY to Gainesville, FL to Portland, L.A., and Stanford.  Best Friends lists a few of the many successful TNR programs across the country and around the world here.

We should note that Hawaii, site of the TWS annual conference, has its own unique problem with abundant feral cats and endangered birds in a closed (island) ecosystem. Still, the Hawaii Cat Foundation is addressing the issue through TNR and–let’s be honest–Hawaii’s singular situation has no bearing on the many successful TNR programs elsewhere.

Still, it behooves us to acknowledge that exotic, invasive species can and do wreak havoc on native ecosystems. Asian carp threaten Lake Michigan; wild pigs (native to Eurasia)…nutria (South America)…zebra mussels (Eurasia)…the list is long. Their presence, whether introduced accidentally or through human folly, creates severe, sometimes catastrophic consequences for native plants and animals in ecosystems unequipped with biological controls. (When sentient, their control poses additional ethical problems.)

But cats aren’t zebra mussels. Cats, who’ve been associated with humans for at least 9500 years, are domesticated companions whose circumstances–those that bring them to feralhood–are a human moral failing. Some five to seven million companion animals (cats and dogs) enter shelters every year, and four million are euthanized–70% of cats, according to ASPCA. This is a betrayal of epic proportions. To advocate for treating feral cats as a plague to be exterminated is simply wrong, especially when TNR programs are good for cats and communities, and proven to work.

According to Laura Nirenberg, legislative analyst for Best Friends’ Focus on Felines campaign,

“TNR significantly reduces shelter admissions and consequently, operating costs; and fewer community cats in shelters increases shelter adoption rates as more cage space opens up for adoptable cats. TNR is the only method proven to effectively control community cat population growth. If trapping and killing cats truly worked, we should have been able to stop doing so years ago!”

Offer your objection, if so moved, to the the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for squandering taxpayer dollars to work against humane community programs that reduce feral cat numbers. Support your local TNR effort. Thank an activist on National Feral Cat Day. I’ll get a jump on it by thanking my cousin Beth. She volunteers with a small, fiercely dedicated, grassroots group–the TNR squad of the no-kill Independent Cat Society in northwest Indiana. Working tirelessly and always on a shoestring, they’ve spayed and neutered some 800 cats since May 2007.

So here’s to you, feline activists. Larkspur sends her gratitude, too.
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Inspiring videos!  Fix Nation; Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon; Toronto TNR Task Force‘s Feral Cat Awareness Day; Alley Cat Allies

Related Animal Blawg posts: Fed Up With Feeding; Spay/Neuter Redux