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"Sheltering an Animal’s Perspective"
By Gregory M. Simpson
Recently I spoke with a woman who was sad to see feral cats living by her home. She was also upset that the Meriden Humane Society would not come and take these cats to the shelter. She was well meaning, obviously caring, and she was trying to help by feeding the cats.
Feral cats are a fact. They don’t have to be a sad fact. There are an estimated 60 million feral cats in the U.S., with 700,000 in Connecticut alone. These cats are either born in the wild or abandoned and revert back to semi-wild behavior. They avoid human contact and are not to be confused with stray but friendly cats.
The area’s feral cat population exceeds the shelter’s capacity many times over. Even if there was room for all of the area’s ferals, they would occupy the space for accepting friendly, domesticated cats. Since Meriden Humane Society is a no-kill shelter, this would quickly lead to a building full of unhappy and unadoptable feral cats that would have to be cared for indefinitely.
After being trapped and sterilized, feral cats are generally better off being returned to where they were living, as long as they are provided food and shelter by reliable feral colony caretakers. Kittens young enough to be socialized can be removed from the colony, socialized, spayed or neutered, and adopted. Trap-neuter-return (TNR) has proven to be the only successful and humane program for the control of feral cat populations.
Funding to sterilize feral cats needs to be expanded through the Connecticut Animal Population Control Program (there is now only $40,000 allocated for this purpose), so that trap-neuter-return programs can be implemented statewide. Low-cost spay-neuter programs such as SPAY/USA and TEAM need to be used. More public-private partnerships need to follow the example set by the City of New Britain, which has set aside $3000 to spay and neuter feral cats in cooperation with the Animal Alliance Welfare League.
Meriden Humane Society is a private, non-profit organization. To pay for veterinary care and staff salaries, it relies on donations from the public. While the Humane Society would like to assist anyone with trap-neuter-return, the shelter has limited traps and no additional funding for spay-neuter of feral colonies or for staff to trap or provide colony management. However, there are Humane Society staff, volunteers, and Board members who willingly advise and assist people with trap-neuter-return on their own time and often out of their own pocket.
Personally, I am fortunate to have as a mentor one of the leading experts on feral cats, Ellen Perry Berkeley. Ellen was pivotal in my own efforts to work with ferals in my neighborhood. She is the author of the award-winning, Maverick Cats: Encounters with Feral Cats." This classic book was included in CAT FANCY’s list of "100 Great Moments for 20th Century Cats." In 2004, she wrote TNR Past Present and Future: A History of the Trap-Neuter-Return Movement."
Ms. Berkeley will generously donate $4.00 to Meriden Humane Society for each copy of Maverick Cats sold through the shelter’s efforts. One may write order directly from Ms. Berkeley at Box 311, Shaftsbury, Vermont 05262. Include a check for $14.95 and a mention to send the $4.00 donation to the Meriden Humane Society. TNR Past Present and Future can be purchased through Alley Cat Allies at www.alleycat.org
Connecticut already has a law authorizing municipalities to establish feral cat registration programs. Uncaring people created the feral cat population through abandonment. It will need to be caring people who do the right thing to help these feral cats through trap-neuter-return.
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