- College Campuses - where students have left them after graduating
- Military Bases - service people get transferred and their cats stay behind
- Restaurants & Fast Food lots - the dumpsters behind these establishments are a ready source of food
- Hospitals - staff and patients often feed them
- Farms - farmers often encourage ferals for rodent control
Unmanaged colonies can grow rapidly.
Feral cats are prolific breeders, and if fed without management, can multiply rapidly. An unneutered tom can impregnate 450 female cats, while an unspayed female and her kittens can collectively produce hundreds of cats within just a few years. The HSUS estimates that a pair of breeding cats and their offspring can exponentially produce over 400,000 cats in 7 years, according to the San Diego Feral Cat Coalition. Obviously this presents an enormous challenge for shelters and animal advocates alike.
TNR Groups follow the ferals
In the past decade a new Trap-neuter-vaccinate-release program has proved effective in managing feral colonies in these core areas. Indeed, right on the Texas A&M campus exists AFCAT - Aggie Feral Cat Alliance of Texas, a group of students, faculty and staff, whose goal is to contol the Aggie feral colonies through a program of trap, vaccinate, neuter and release, along with managed feeding and public education on the value of spay-neutering. Although the program has only been in place since August 1998, Dawn Fradkin, founder and member of AFCAT, states that the feral colonies have been reduced by one-third and that no feral kittens have been trapped on the campus in a year, which speaks strongly for the success of the program. Below is the letter sent by Ms. Fradkin to the The Bryan-College Station Eagle in response to their article, used with her permission:
- Subj: "Curiosity may kill A&M cats" 4/9/00
Date: 4/10/00 2:04:49 PM Central Daylight Time
From: Aggie Cats
To: letterseditor@theeagle.com
"Ignorance may kill A&M cats" would be a more appropriate title for the baseless and inflammatory article which appeared in your Sunday edition. As long as the problems of pet overpopulation and negligent pet ownership face our community, effective programs such as the Aggie Feral Cat Alliance of Texas (AFCAT) and Brazos Feral Cat Allies are necessary.
For many years TAMU sporadically trapped and removed campus cats, which did nothing to prevent reproduction and immigration of new cats. In the last 21 months, AFCAT's trap/neuter/return program has reduced the campus cat population by 1/3. The managed colony is healthy, vaccinated, neutered, and identified by ear-tips and microchips. Caretakers monitor the cats and feed them daily. No kittens have been trapped on the A&M campus for over a year.
The proven success of Trap/Neuter/Return (TNR) makes it the feral cat management choice across the nation. Stanford University, University of Texas, University of Washington are examples of numerous campus programs, while community groups excel in San Diego CA, Portland OR, Miami FL, and in Houston, Austin, and Dallas, to name a few. The internet abounds with feral cat sites and testimonials to TNR management practices. Statistics from the San Diego Department of Animal Control as of 6/30/97 show that while the number of cats adopted or claimed by owners has remained fairly constant over the years, there has been a decrease of almost 50% in the number of cats impounded and killed as compared to 1992 (when the Feral Cat Coalition TNR clinics started). Before the FCC was formed, the number of cats impounded and killed had been going up 15% per year.
Cat critics often misquote predation studies conducted in New Zealand and Australia where delicate island ecosystems have been severely impacted by introduced species such as cats and rabbits. In the United States, habitat destruction and environmental pollution make people the "unnatural predators that kill millions of birds and other animals each year nationwide."
In a perfect world, every pet would be neutered and owned by a loving family. In reality, we live in a throw-away society where people and pets are shunned when they become inconvenient. We can stick our heads in the sand and pretend that the problems aren't really there, or we can do something responsible to change the situation through intervention and education. The comments of wildlife science professors Schlitter, Clark, and Lacher remind me of the proverb, "A fool finds no pleasure in understanding, but delights in airing his own opinions."
Dawn Fradkin
AggieCats@aol.com Class of 2002
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