In the United States, the biggest challenge is the education of the public to spay and neuter their pets. Until we all commit to this crucial task, we are all part of the problem and swimming upstream against a tide of unwanted kittens that will be dumped at a shelter, abandoned at a park or wildlife area or given to other humans who will perpetuate the problem.
The fact is that there are no native feral cats . They are a species bred in ignorance by humans too self-occupied or too lazy to deal with the sterilization of their pets. It is astounding in this day and age that there are still a number of people who subscribe to the "let them have a first litter" mentality.
Veterinarians universally agree that allowing a cat to have a litter before spaying her serves no useful purpose. The fact is that many veterinarians now believe that sterilization at a very early age is less traumatic for the cat and aids in better long-term health for both males and females.
What happens to these unwanted kittens? Sometimes they are lucky to find good homes, more often however, when they pass the "cute" stage with no home in site, the owners, usually with all good (though misguided) intentions, take them to a park or other area and dump them to fend for themselves. Those who survive (and the odds are against them), eventually find other unwanted cats and a new feral cat community is born. Within the community, the unaltered males fight, the females are bred, and more unwanted kittens are born. Many of the cats, both adults and kittens, die of starvation, disease, or injuries. Although we will probably not see an answer to the problem in our lifetime, great strides have been made is small areas.
Safe Haven for Cats, for instance, based in San Mateo County, California, has a great trap/neuter/adoption program. This organization, founded by Jeri Dopp and her large-hearted family, rescues feral kittens, gives them loving foster care until they are ready to be placed, then places them in loving homes through their Adoption Fairs held twice monthly. Oh yes, Jeri also sees that each kitten is neutered prior to adoption.
The Feral Cat Coalition of San Diego has been in existence for over five years, and during that period, San Diego Animal Control has seen a 50% decrease in the number of cats impounded and killed. Prior to the formation of the FCC, the number was increasing at a rate of 15% per year!
Taking into account that an unspayed female and her offspring can be responsible for the birth of 420,000 kittens in a seven-year period, it isn't hard to imagine the ramifications of the work of this organization. It has been proven by several studies that euthanizing a feral cat colony just plain doesn't work. The nature of feral cat communities is that when community cats are taken away, new ones move in (nature abhors a vacuum). Therefore, the trap/neuter/release program seems to be the best one for containing the number of feral cats in any given colony.
Alley Cat Allies was established as the national feral cat network to promote humane feral cat population control in the U.S. through trap-sterilize-release programs with long-term supervision. This organization is the ultimate resource for assistance to caretakers working with feral cat colonies.
The success of these programs suggests that a managed, humane solution exists to the problem of feral cats. However, with an estimated 60 million homeless cats in the United States alone, obviously more help is needed.
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