There is a bizarre story out of Portsmouth that raises questions concerning the handling of feral cats. The Portsmouth Humane Society fired its executive director Jenn Austin over the no-kill shelter’s policy for feral cats. The shelter has been having staff members adopt feral cats, sterilize them, and then release them back into the woods. Over 300 cats are believed to have been released in violation of state law under what is called a “trap, neuter and release” program. The shelter was fined for the violations by state officials and promised to discontinue the practice.
While the practice has been roundly denounced in this controversy, it is important to keep in mind that the staff was trying to avoid killing the cats while controlling the population. The shelter has a five-year contract with the city and will no longer accept feral cats since they are not candidates for adoption. The result however may be that feral cats will not be collected and sterilized. For many, trap, neuter, and release is a better option than euthanasia.
The practice began under former executive director Christie Chipps Peters, who is now the director of Richmond’s Department of Animal Care and Control.
The city however is now objecting that it thought that feral cats were part of the contract with the Portsmouth shelter while the shelter says that it was never equipped or empowered to handle feral cats. Since such cats are not viewed as appropriate for pets, it would seem that the only option (other than sterilization and release) would be killing all feral cats.
A feral cat is defined as “wild” or cats that have never been socialized. They avoid people and act aggressively. That may be hard to discern in some circumstances. The shelter is supposed to neuter all cats and put them up for adoption but feral cats are considered outside of the contract and standards for adoption by the shelter.
On paper, the shelter looked like a roaring success. In 2012, it took in 1,575 cats, 885 of which were adopted and 256 euthanized. The adoption rate appears to have included employee adoptions under the policy. it also contradicts the common view that feral cats are not candidates for adoption. I am unclear on this point as to whether feral cats can be domesticated as a practical matter.
Some employees objected to “adopting” the cats and releasing them in their neighborhoods. One employee said that two of the cats that she released were hit by cars.
Notably, the employees have said that Chipps Peters knew that the releasing of the animals violated state law because they used to laugh about it.
The shelter receives $325,000 a year from the city.
PETA has denounced the policy of release but does not explain what the policy should be short of housing hundreds of feral cats for the remainder of their lives. PETA has been criticized by animal activists for its support of euthanasia.
My first reaction to this story was horror at the thought of releasing cats into the wild. I still view that policy as bizarre. However, the more I looked at the story the more I was left wondering about alternatives. This is an adoption center. It seems like the city wants the shelter to “handle” feral cats but does not have any option to suggest other than killing every feral cat captured. One could argue that this is more human than leaving cats to starve or be hit by cars. Cats have also been linked to the rapid decrease in song birds.
The shelter states on its website that “we will never turn away an animal that comes to our doors… As long as the animal is happy and healthy, they can consider PHS their home.” However, that would seem to exclude feral cats (though it is again not clear how one can tell at an intake that a cat is a stray living in the woods or a feral cat). If the shelter does not accept the cat, doesn’t that mean it will be turned away and likely released by the good samaritan back into the wild?
The alternative is for the shelter to house hundreds of feral cats in a colony that is growing. Politicians have lined up to denounce the shelter for the “trap, neuter and release” policy but have notably waved off questions as what to do with the cats when asked by reporters.
So what is the solution if feral cats are not suitable for adoption? Should there just be an instant kill order for feral cats or is the sterilize and release policy the best of bad options?
Aside: In case you are curious — the term that I use of “cat licker” is justifiably and accurately gleaned from the growing fad of people who are obsessed with cats and want to do everything possible to make their cats feel good at the expense of all that is reasonable and sane.
They are now licking their cats clean.
youtube D0T com SLASH watch?v=p9xmiOxsTWg
Since they see a cat fighting back from being washed in water as animal abuse, but the cat not fighting if they use their tongues, they use their tongues instead to wash their cats.
It’s just another one of the many aberrant and mentally-ill behaviors of “cat lickers”.
I cannot, in all good conscience and honesty, EVER use the term “cat lover” again to describe these heartless and spineless cretins. People who love cats do not throw them under the wheels of moving cars, let them lap-up antifreeze in a gutter, force them to attack one another to fight for territory (no different than people who run dog-fight rings and are just as criminal of animal abuse), or let them be attacked by other animals by letting them roam free. “Cat Lover” is an extremely oxymoronic label. “Cat Licker” is the only one that accurately works today.
Licensing and laws do nothing to curb the problem. If cats are required to be licensed then cat-lickers just stop putting collars on their cats, as they did by me. And they won’t even bother getting them micro-chipped, especially not that. They want absolutely nothing that can hold them legally accountable for the actions of their cats. We’re not talking about the topmost responsible citizens of the world, you know. They don’t want that responsibility of what their cat has done coming back on them. If they had even one iota of a sense of responsibility and respect for all other lives on this planet we wouldn’t even be having these discussions.
However, I found something that DOES work, works well, and works fast (relative to the years it takes trying to educate deceitful and lying cat-lickers that accomplishes ABSOLUTELY NOTHING). Where I live cat-lickers have learned that _ALL_ cats, stray and feral, collared or not, ear-tipped or not (because TNR con-artists now just clip cats’ ears only, WITHOUT sterilizing or vaccinating them, to protect their hoarded cats from being trapped and euthanized), _ALL_ their cats are shot on sight and buried whenever found away from supervised confinement.
The ONLY thing that works is destroying any of their cats found outdoors off their property. They either learn to stop getting more cats that die under the wheels of cars or from animal attacks, or they finally learn how to be a responsible pet owner, respectful neighbor, and learn to keep their invasive species animal under confined supervision, as it should be. Win win win all around.
You can’t train a cat to stay home but I found that, in time, you CAN train a cat-owner into being a responsible pet-owner and a respectable neighbor. Most of them are so phenomenally stupid, disrespectful, and criminally irresponsible though that you have to make at least 12-15 of their cats permanently disappear before they even start to figure out what they’ve been doing wrong all during their sorry, useless, and pathetic lives. (Though the ones by me who were adopting “barn cats” from “barn-cat programs” were uniquely cretinized and lobotomized. I had to shoot and bury many hundreds of their cats, to stop their cats from annihilating the very last of my native wildlife, before they started to learn.)
If you live where its not legal to use firearms then check into 700-1200fps air-rifles and pointed vermin-pellets. Many of the new ones come with their own sound-suppressor designs built-in, specifically designed for shooting vermin cats in urban areas, the demand is that great. Failing that, then there’s always the SSS and TDSS Cat Management Programs that are exploding in popularity worldwide. Shoot, Shovel, & Shut-Up; or Trap, Drown, Shovel, & Shut-Up. Both methods are legal on every square foot of this earth. No local laws were violated if it never happened. (Where cats have already learned to evade all trapping methods, then inexpensive generic acetaminophen (overseas paracetamol) pain-relievers are a more species-specific vermin poison. A method condoned by even National Geographic, Audubon, Smithsonian, and many others. But you really need to dispose of that cat safely so that wildlife won’t die from the many deadly diseases cats spread even after their death.)
I don’t see anyone dumping cats where I live anymore. They don’t even adopt more than can be kept under lock & key 24/7. When driving through the area I don’t see even one cat on anyone’s doorsteps anymore. I always keep an eye out to see if there are more free-roaming cats that will have to be shot. And if I’ll have to leave fish-oil trails on all the roadsides again, leading right to my IR surveillance system and laser-sighted rifle. (You can read some of the most effective methods I invented to rid my lands of hundreds of these vermin in only two seasons, posted here: americanhunter D0T org SLASH blogs/arkansas-will-trap-feral-cats The eradication so complete and effective that cats are non-existent from my area for nearly 4 years now. Not seen a one.)
Leaving ANY of their invasive species cats outside in my area means certain death for that cat, their further existence can be counted in hours. You’d think everyone else could learn from this simple lesson. The quickest way to solve an unwanted animal and irresponsible pet-owner problem is to let everyone know that you will quickly and humanely destroy every last one of their unwanted, uncared-for, or unsupervised animals for them. They either grow up fast or, far more plausible, dump their animals elsewhere to become someone else’s problem.
You just can’t be an enabler of criminally irresponsible spineless and heartless idiots — or they remain that way. (At least where you live, anyway.)
IF THERE ARE NOT DIRECT AND IMMEDIATE IRREVERSIBLE CONSEQUENCES TO THEIR CRIMINALLY-NEGLIGENT AND CRIMINALLY-IRRESPONSIBLE BEHAVIORS AND VALUES THEN THEY LEARN ABSOLUTELY *NOTHING*.
Even if they’ve had a rabies shot, they can still carry and transmit rabies. This is why the practice of this criminally irresponsible TNR BS is causing rabies outbreaks in so many communities.
The worst part of TNR, anyone associated with TNR aren’t adhering to the mandatory REQUIRED BY LAW SIX-MONTH QUARANTINE for any animal when harvested from the wild and intended for any sector of the pet-trade. This is why rabid cats and kittens are now being adopted direct from shelters that hand-out cats from outdoor cat-colonies. Like this one of hundreds for example, Google for: RABID KITTEN ADOPTED WAKE COUNTY.
Rabies’ incubation period being on average from 21 to 240 days, up to 11 months — WITHOUT SHOWING ANY SYMPTOMS. One rare case being 6 YEARS. The ONLY other way; aside of quarantining them for this mandatory, lengthy, and costly duration; to be certain an animal is not carrying rabies is to destroy it for the rabies test.
The 10-14 day quarantine for bite and scratch cases is to see if the animal dies during that time. If the cat dies then the cat was infectious at the time of the bite or scratch and the person must get rabies shots. Rabies can only be transmitted during the last 10-14 days of its incubation period in an animal. If a cat survives after this 10-14 day quarantine they can STILL be carrying rabies until it dies from it many months later, infecting humans and other animals during the 2 weeks before it finally dies.
Why aren’t these feral-cat-lickers paying for rabies shots, treatment costs, lost work-time, and all the suffering after THEIR feral cats bite or scratch someone? They don’t carry even ONE PENNY of liability insurance to cover their criminal negligence and stupidity. They all need to be sued so hard and deep for directly violating national and international disease-containment laws that they never recover from it for the rest of their criminally-irresponsible and criminally-negligent lives.
Or how about this fun one, Google for: RABIES PROMPTS CARLSBAD CAT PROGRAM SUSPENSION TNR
Rabies Outbreak Caused by TNR! 50+ Pets Euthanized. ALL Stray Cats Destroyed. All livestock destroyed. More than a dozen homeowners pay for their own $3000+ rabies shots.
Google for: Rabies Outbreak in Westchester County
Google for: Rabid Kitten Jamestown Exposure
There’s hundreds more like those on the net showing everyone how these phenomenally ignorant and foolish cat-lickers “help” their communities by allowing TNR CAT-HOARDERS to continue their criminally negligent behavior.
These are just the diseases cats have been spreading to humans, not counting the ones they spread to all wildlife. THERE ARE NO VACCINES against many of these, and are in-fact listed as bio-terrorism agents. They include: Afipia felis, Anthrax, Bartonella (Rochalimaea) henselae, Bergeyella (Weeksella) zoohelcum, Campylobacter Infection, Cat Scratch Disease, Chlamydia psittaci (feline strain), Cowpox, Coxiella burnetti Infection (Q fever), Cryptosporidium Infection, Cutaneous larva migrans, Dermatophytosis, Dipylidium Infection (tapeworm), Hookworm Infection, Leptospira Infection, Giardia, Neisseria canis, Pasteurella multocida, Plague, Poxvirus, Rabies, Rickettsia felis, Ringworm, Salmonella Infection, Scabies, Sporothrix schenckii, Toxocara Infection, Toxoplasmosis, Trichinosis, Visceral larva migrans, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis. [Centers for Disease Control, July 2010] Bovine Tuberculosis, Flea-borne Typhus, Rat-Bite Fever, Sarcosporidiosis, and Tularemia, can now also be added to that list.
Yes, The Plague is alive and well in the USA, and it is now being spread by CATS. Google for: Cat-Transmitted Fatal Pneumonic Plague, for a fun read. One of hundreds. Totally disproving that oft-spewed manipulation tactic by cat-lickers that more cats could have prevented The Plague in Europe — cats can CAUSE IT!
Now add on top of that that anyone who feeds these cats is training them to approach humans for food (contrary to them always claiming feral cats run from humans). What happens to the child or foolish adult that reaches down to pet or try to pick up that now seemingly friendly “cute kitty”? The wild animal lashes out and bites or scratches the hand that has no food for them.
Google for: FERAL CAT ATTACK RABIES
Don’t be surprised at the number of search-hits you get nor the horrendous stories that go with them. The number of suspected rabies cases and the then required mandatory rabies shots for each individual costing them well over $3000 out of their own pockets, has been growing as exponentially fast as cats breed. Ask a vet that released that cat, a cat-feeder, or your local government to pay for your shots and lost work-time and suffering? Neither they, nor shelters, nor the local government who supports TNR carry ONE PENNY of liability insurance for the deadly dangers they are bringing to your communities by allowing them to feed and TNR stray cats. Two reports even document rabid cats entering a home through their pet-door and one even came through their ceiling searching for human-supplied foods — one attack so bad it required hospitalization for the family.
Conclusion on all TNR practices now direct from the CDC
onlinelibrary.wiley D0T com SLASH doi/10.1111/zph.12070/abstract
Summary
Domestic cats are an important part of many Americans’ lives, but effective control of the 60-100 million feral cats living throughout the country remains problematic. Although trap-neuter-vaccinate-return (TNVR) programmes are growing in popularity as alternatives to euthanizing feral cats, their ability to adequately address disease threats and population growth within managed cat colonies is dubious. Rabies transmission via feral cats is a particular concern as demonstrated by the significant proportion of rabies post-exposure prophylaxis associated with exposures involving cats. Moreover, TNVR has not been shown to reliably reduce feral cat colony populations because of low implementation rates, inconsistent maintenance, and immigration of unsterilized cats into colonies. For these reasons, TNVR programmes are not effective methods for reducing public health concerns or for controlling feral cat populations. Instead, responsible pet ownership, universal rabies vaccination of pets and removal of strays remain integral components to control rabies and other diseases.
Here’s how these delusional, self-serving, and uneducated TNR-advocates are destroying all life on the planet.
The TNR CON-GAME
FACT: Trap & Kill failed because cats cannot be trapped faster than they exponentially breed out of control.
FACT: Trap, Neuter, & Re-Abandon (TNR) is an even bigger abject failure because these man-made ecological disasters cannot be trapped faster than they exponentially breed out of control, and they also continue to cruelly annihilate all native wildlife (from the smallest of prey up to the top predators that are starved to death), and the cats continue to spread many deadly diseases that they carry today — FOR WHICH THERE ARE NO VACCINES AGAINST THEM. Many of which are even listed as bioterrorism agents. (Such as Tularemia and The Plague — Yes, people have already died from cat-transmitted plague in the USA. No fleas nor rats even required. The cats themselves carry and transmit the plague all on their own.)
FACT: THERE IS ABSOLUTELY _NOTHING_ HUMANE ABOUT TNR. Nearly every last TNR’ed cat dies an inhumane death by road-kill, from cat and animal attacks, environmental poisons, starvation, dehydration, freezing to death, infections, parasites, etc. And if very very lucky humanely shot to death or re-trapped and drowned (the two most common methods employed on all farms and ranches to protect their gestating livestock’s offspring and valuable native wildlife dying from cats’ Toxoplasmosis parasites). This doesn’t begin to count the thousands of defenseless native animals that cats skin alive and disembowel alive for their daily and hourly play-toys. The only difference in destroying cats immediately and humanely instead of trapping, sterilizing, then releasing them to an inhumane death; is that money isn’t going into an HSUS or SPCA board-member’s pocket, veterinarian’s pocket, cat-food company CEO’s pocket, or a drug-company CEO’s pocket. And that’s the ONLY difference!
FACT: These manipulative, deceptive, and deceitful TNR proponents are now clipping cats ears ONLY. WITHOUT vaccinations nor sterilizing them. They do this to save money and protect their outdoor hoarded cat colonies from being trapped and euthanized by the state because the clipped-ear shows officials that they have been sterilized and vaccinated. Why pay $140 for each cat and all that time when just a trap and a simple snip of scissors on each one can also protect their hoarded cats from being destroyed? (I have absolute proof of this.)
FACT: Cats are a man-made (through selective breeding) invasive species. And as such, are no less of a man-made environmental disaster than any other caused by man. Cats are even worse than an oil-spill of continent-sized proportions. They not only kill off rare and endangered marine-mammals along all coastlines from run-off carrying cats’ Toxoplasma gondii parasites, they destroy the complete food-chain in every ecosystem where cats are found. From smallest of prey gutted and skinned alive for cats’ tortured play-toys, up to the top predators that are starved to death from cats destroying their ONLY food sources. (Precisely what cats caused on my own lands not long ago.)
FACT: Hunted To Extinction (or in this case, extirpation of all outdoor cats) is the ONLY method that is faster than a species like cats can exponentially out-breed and out-adapt to. Especially a man-made invasive species like these cats that can breed 2X-4X’s faster than any naturally occurring cat-species.
FACT: In _FOURTEEN_YEARS_ Alley Cat ALL-LIES branch of NYC have only reduced feral cats in their own city by 0.08% to 0.024% (as the months go on that percentage becomes more insignificant), allowing more than 99.92% to 99.976% to exponentially breed out of control. Here’s how Alley-Cat-ALL-LIES’ deceptive math works: If you TNR 4 cats and 3 get flattened by cars this translates to 75% fewer feral-cats everywhere. Alley Cat ALL-LIES can’t even reduce cats in their own city, yet they promote it as a worldwide solution. Then even bigger fools fall for it and promote it.
FACT: When researching over 100 of the most “successful” TNR programs worldwide, JUST ONE trapped more than 0.4%. Oregon’s 50,000 TNR’ed cats (the highest rate I found) is 4.9% of all ferals in their state. Yet, by applying population growth calculus on the unsterilized 95.1% they will have trapped only 0.35% of all cats in their state sometime this year. Less than 0.4% is a far cry from the required 75%-85% to be the least bit effective.
FACT: Their mythical “vacuum effect” is a 100% LIE. A study done by the Texas A&M University proved that any perceived “vacuum” is just the simple case that CATS ATTRACT CATS. Get rid of them all and there’s no cats there to attract more. I proved this myself by shooting and burying hundreds of them on my own lands. ZERO cats replaced them FOR NEARLY FOUR YEARS NOW. If you want more cats, keep even one of them around, more will find you. That university study also found that sterilized cats very poorly defend any territory. Non-sterilized cats, being more aggressive, take over the sterilized cats’ resources (shelter & food if any). If there is any kind of “vacuum effect” at all, it is that sterilizing cats cause non-sterilized cats to restore the reproductive void.
FACT: During all this investigation I have discovered something that is unfaltering without fail. Something that you can bet your very life on and win every last time. That being — IF A TNR CAT-HOARDER IS TALKING THEN THEY ARE LYING. 100% guaranteed!
The only people that need to be investigated are “Alley Cat ALL LIES” and any others associated with them. Every last one of their claims have been disproved countless times. They need to ALL be fined and convicted of perpetrating a dangerous con-game and hoax upon all of nature and all of humanity.
They claim TNR reduces cat populations: 100% FALSE
They claim cats don’t spread any deadly diseases: 100% FALSE
They claim TNR is humane: 100% FALSE
They claim TNR is the ONLY effective method: 100% FALSE
They claim TNR saves communities money: 100% FALSE
They claim TNR is legal everywhere: 100% FALSE
They claim only TNR’ed cats get ear-tipped: 100% FALSE
They claim a mythical “vacuum effect” if you remove cats: 100% FALSE
They claim cats are a natural part of any environment: 100% FALSE
They make many claims, all of which are 100% FALSE.
Alley Cat ALL-LIES sums it up perfectly.
They need to be spending the rest of their sorry and manipulative lives behind jail bars somewhere.
I read an interesting study/review on Alley Cat All-LIES website, where they proudly post a map of the USA with all the new communities that have passed TNR ordinances. What they failed to mention, in their usual deceptive, deceitful, and manipulative tactics to continue to perpetrate their hoax; is that many dots on that map are communities that have passed laws and ordinances AGAINST TNR, making any and all TNR practices a crime (to further bolster and clarify all existing laws that already make it a crime). They get around this with their carefully selective wording of something to the effect of (from memory), “… these are communities that passed TNR ordinances …”, never having to declare which ones were for and which ones were totally against TNR. Oh, but all those dots on that map sure do look good to the average fool who drinks their Kool-Aid!
I always laugh anytime someone is arrested and convicted for starting an illegal TNR colony in their community because of them having believed all the lies that they’ve been told by these fools. Then Alley-Cat-ALL-LIES can’t be found to defend their case in court. Idiots, one and all. They throw their very own supporters under the bus to test the laws everywhere, and always fail time and time again.
Pete, you know this blawg is public, sure enough now you’ve given somebody out there an idea 🙂
(i apologize in advance, lottakatz. i tried not to do it but like the scorpion said to the frog, it’s just my nature)
finally, something we can export to china. with the new FDA regs they can process and return on the same ship (with honey mustard packets).
i’m lovin it
I wrote about the Bayou Corne Sinkhole disaster in Assumption Parish, LA. People living near the sinkhole are still out of their homes, and the flyover yesterday (see video below) shows the hole is getting bigger. However, the good people of Assumption Parish have not forgotten the critters. This is from the Assumption Parish blog posted today:
we had a county program here in volusia co. floriduh. they had a vet set up in an rv and would go around and neuter/spay and vaccinate any cat or dog for five dollars. i must have taken 8-10 (all i could catch) down to be fixed. they would ask if it was a feral animal, if so they would put a small notch in the ear to identify them.
the program was ended for lack of interest, however very few people knew about it.
“Actually, Dan, study shows that cats that are fed regularly are better hunters.”
Even if this was true it isn’t the point. Basic population biology says that if left unfed the cats will reduce the rodent population until there is a balance.
In urban area there will be a food chain. Human food waste supports rats which support cats. There is no need to feed feral cats. Their population will be limited by the amount of prey. But if you feed them you de-link the natural dependency and get both more cats and more rats.
If it wasn’t for feeding of feral animals and massive human food waste I think there would be no need to plan control of urban animals.
We had to kill the cats in order to save them. And we got paid for it.
Actually, Dan, study shows that cats that are fed regularly are better hunters. Seems counter-intuitive, I know. DEW, I can’t answer for other cities, but in Louisville, the TNR program cats get neutered, one-year rabies vaccine (not sure about distemper), an ear tip, and flea remedy. Since they often hang around, I have seen to it they’ve gotten other medical treatment, as well. After neutering, their roaming and aggressive (toward other cats) behaviors tend to mellow. No, I do not believe that would be an appropriate remedy for adult human males.
The worst cats are members of the Oil-Qaeda strain. We are like the Egyptians who long ago worshiped some cats Oilah Akbar!.
Dig these cats:
Hello, There does seem to be some confusion above. In general with a TNR – the animals are returned to where they were trapped. The people doing the trapping – they bring them to the shelter knowing the cats are feral knowing they will be neutered and released. If the shelter becomes a kill shelter – the trapping stops! You just get more cats!
My wife participated in a TNR program several years ago. She interacted with a feral cat in the neighborhood and coordinated its trapping, neutering, and release with a local animal program. She fed the cat when she could after it was released and built up enough trust with it over weeks and months until she was able to bring it indoors and adopt it. Trapping means that feral cats get some care they would not have received (do they immunize trapped feral cats?); neutering helps to reduce the population problem and makes the cat more adoptable (in principle); and releasing cats seems more humane than euthanizing them.
“I am the “crazy cat man” in my neighborhood. I put food and water out and have build a shelter for one-two.”
In my view you need to go only one step further: stop feeding them. Feral cats will keep the rodent population down as long as you don’t feed them.
I would agree with others that the trap neuter and release program is the best option. I do have a problem with people who let their cats roam during the day when they are more apt to kill songbirds.
My comment was randomly deleted by the paranoid spam filter. No links, not very long.
I’ve adopted cats from TNR programs. It’s a case-by-case issue, as to whether they are adoptable. I’ve had four cats with notched ears. That’s how the clinics mark the spayed/neutered ferals. If they catch a feral with a notched ear, they let it go.
The local “Fix Our Ferals” program lends cages for folks to catch ferals on their property. Some organizations, as Dr. Turley mentioned, insist that the trappers are permanently responsible for those ferals which they catch and neuter/spay.
If that was enforced (it can’t be), it would impede the program.
TNR is the best solution, since humans refuse to be responsible for their pets and their offspring.
Humans created this problem. It’s not the cats’ fault.
For those of you who joke about brutality toward cats: not funny.
Make jokes about brutality towards children, if that stuff appeals to you.