Feral Cats

A feral creature is referred to as a wild, untamed, savage animal that has gone from a state of domestication to a wild presence. Feral cats are typically kittens of domestic cats that were left, disowned, discarded by their owners. Un-habituated to humans, they live in colonies in urban areas...in alleys, malls, garbage disposal areas etc. If they manage to stave off starvation and death from other predators like coyotes, foxes, dogs, they thrive and breed at a prodigious rate - producing over half a million offsprings in their lifespan. A burden on resources, millions are spent annually to control them.

There are two approaches commonly advocated to deal with this problem. One is merciless euthanasia of every captured feral. The other, which is more sensible and what I also advocate, is TNR i.e. Trap, Neuter and Return - this involves capturing the stray cats, neutering them and returning them to the area. This approach, apart from being more humane, is also more successful and cost-effective than repeated attempts at extermination since the area of killed cats is soon taken over by other ferals. During TNR, cats are also frequently immunized and one of their ears nicked to identify them as being inoculated and neutered.

Whilst feral cats have had devastating ecological influences on biodiversity of certain species like the extinction of huitas from the Caribbean and the Guadalupe Storm-petrel from Pacific Mexico, they are also believed to be of use in controlling over growth of populations of certain animal species. An example is their removal from Macquarie Island where the number of rats and rabbits grew exponentially and had harmful influences on local ecology including the native seabirds. Debate is going to continue on feral cats and how to best deal with them, meanwhile the take home message for pet owners is to neuter their cats - not only to avoid having to deal with a litter of kittens every few months - but also for the health of the cats.

The author is a blogger about <a href="http://ailurophiles.blogspot.com">cats</a> and an expert on <a href="http://ailurophiles.blogspot.com/2007/05/feral-cats.html">feral cats</a>.