Feral Cats
For the sake of clarity -- definitions: Feral cats: originating originally from the domestic cat -- no or little contact with people and born outside of human society. They are wild domestic cats. The domestic cat is a domesticated European wildcat. Wildcats: 36 species (or is it 37?) ranging widely in size and appearance. Entirely wild. No connection with people except in terms of people persecuting them over centuries. Stray cats: domestic cats that were once living in a human's home and which are now homeless or possibly time share cats of some sort. Difference between stray and feral cats [link]  . photo ©Feral Indeed! - published under creative commons license It is fundamentally wrong (as the Wikipedia authors have or had done - Wikipedia is constantly amended) to write about cats that have become feral in the same vein as say rats or other animals that have evolved without humankind's intervention. But for us there would be no feral cats. At a fundamental level, they are created from abandoned unneutered domestic cats that were once with a human family. Of course they then breed on their own but we started the process. We should not shirk our responsibilities towards them. Unfortunately we do and we do it over and over again by the millions. Yet, there are a good number of fine people who take responsibility and who act with kindliness towards them. These people like feral cats and I am pleased and proud to say that over 100 (and counting) have contributed to this site in sharing their experiences (Click here to see visitors' submissions) Feral cats may and frequently do live in colonies. Colonies congregate in an area because it provides protection and food. Such places might be at the rear of hospitals or restaurants as just two examples. The lifespan of a feral cat is far shorter, unsurprisingly, than that of a domestic cat, at about 2 years if solitary and 10 years if there is a human caretaker1. Domestic cat live to 15 years plus to a max of about, extremely rarely of 25 years (some live longer). The greatest debate about cats becoming feral is their impact on native species upon which they sometimes prey, if not feeding off waste human food. A lot of people make claims about the devastation of certain wild species. This has rarely happened and when it does it could be because the domestic cat has been introduced deliberately onto a small island to say deal with rats to then prey on a species that is unique to an island and which is naive (meaning no predator response as it had no predator)4. That, once again, would be our fault. The cat acts naturally. There is cause for concern but there are too many wild assertations and unsubstantiated "facts" bandied around on the internet in my opinion. See: How Feral Cats Affect Wildlife [link]. In Australia, New Zealand and certain areas of North America they are considered as pests due to their threat to endangered species. As a consequence desparate and controversial measures are sometimes taken to exterminate them (Ground Shotting of Feral Cats - link in Australia).The "battle" between people sensitive to the plight of feral cats (and that as you can tell includes me) and those who dislike them has been fought for almost a century or more. It was recognised in a 1916 report in Massachusetts, USA for instance7 (see the full PDF file for this ).
A recent battle of this type took place in Beverly Hills. A kindly old
lady was participating in TNR and feeding the feral cats. There was
dissent and a prosecution, which through the great good sense of the
council members (the communities leaders and legislators) turned into a
chance to create new city legislation on how to deal with cats that had
become feral. Common sense reigned (see the full story).1916 report for the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture titled The Domestic Cat: Bird Killer, Mouser and Destroyer of Wildlife, Feral cats are adaptable (so are domestic cats) and can accept hot and cold conditions. Their diet varies depending on the environment in which they find themselves. In Australia they prey on European rabbits and/or mice in arid areas, marsupials (mammals, that have a pouch (called the marsupium), in which females carry their young through early infancy) in forests and urban areas. Birds and reptiles form a relatively small part of their diet6. Feral cats favour ground dwelling animals over birds10. Yet there are many estimates (by so called experts) of the number of songbirds killed by cats generally and they are large numbers. Exact numbers are not known and estimates made (a dangerous way of doing things I would suggest). Some say that domestic and feral cats in the USA kill hundreds of millions of birds annually9. In California, USA Ron Jurek, a wildlife biologist for the California Department of Fish and Game, says that the population of cats that are feral in urban areas is greater than that which nature can support9. The fallacy in that argument is that nature does not support ferals in urban areas or not wholly so. It is the rubbish of humans or the kindness of humans. Perhaps something needs to be done about how rubbish is dealt with. In urban areas, he said, there are hundreds of cats per square mile (1.6 square kilometers)—more cats than nature can support. Feral cats are preyed upon by dogs and coyotes for example (in the USA). In other parts of the world it might be: humans, feral dogs, wolves, bears, cougars, bobcats, foxes, feral pigs, crocodilians, snakes, and birds of prey (see for example: loss of a dwarf cat on a balcony) The history of feral cats must parallel the history of the domestication of the wildcat. As soon as a cat is domesticated there is the prospect of it being abandoned back from whence it came: the wild and becoming feral. In Australia, where they consider the feral cat a major problem (it seems) it is thought that they "arrived" on the scene in 18242. Other than that assessment they have been there since the European settlers arrived (my preference). They may even have arrived before the Europeans. It is possible that they arrive with Dutch shipwrecks (1600s) or Indonesian fishermen3. If you use this search box to search for "feral cats" you will find many pages on this subject:
What prompted me to build this page was a news item (via Business Wire) about Steve Wozniak (Apple founder with Steve Jobs) who has teamed up with Humane Society Silicon Valley (HSSV) to heighten awareness of the this problem in the Santa Clara county. He did this by presenting a video now on YouTube. It's very good. Here it is...... Of course the problem is nationwide and indeed worldwide. It has been said by people wiser than me that the measure of how civilized we are is how we treat the vulnerable and less fortunate than ourselves. The vulnerable includes animals and that includes cats and cats includes abandoned cats (they were once companion cats or their parents or grandparents were as I said). It has been found that the most human way to deal with them is to trap, neuter and return (TNR). {This could be refined by this: TTVARM: trap, test, vaccinate, alter, release, maintain5}. Taming wild feral cats and kittens [link] 
is
possible. "Return" in this context means to rehome kittens/cats that can be tamed (redomesticated) and to
return the remaining ferals to the wild of the urban jungle.
Click on this link to see how to catch
a stray cat. TNR is the only humane way to deal with feral cats as at 2010, it could be argued. Simply killing them (the objective of many people) does not work (see vacuum phenomenon )
unless the entire population of cats can be extirpated as may be the
case on a small island for example. However, I stress that TNR deals
with the cats and not with the root cause of the problem, the
irresponsible people who fail to take care for their cat companions in
a proper manner. There may (must?) be others, but I only know of one
city, Beverly Hills,
in the USA where city laws have been recently enacted to deal with the
feral cats humanely and sensibly by tackling human behavior not cat
behavior.The above said there are arguments that TNR simply does not work. Indeed some argue it encourages the expansion of the feral cat as for example feral cats come to the site of TNR from outside the area. In Australia there is an argument that says very large feral cats are evolving and more drastic steps must be taken8. I argue that they should or could be put to use in the way that they were used by farmers long ago. One visitor Jan has done this, relocating a group of her ferals to a farm. Yet others argue that the relocationing of ferals is problematic. Hate them? Care For Them? Feel For Them? Want Rid of Them? Please tell us your views, stories, tragedies and successes here. And if you have any ideas to solve the problem we'd like to hear them. Please scroll down to below the form to see the submissions by visitors or myself.
I have not seen anyone talk about this except on Yahoo Answers. And I am simply thinking aloud. We know that over 2 million cats are destroyed each year by shelters (not much sheltering really is it?). If a shelter is employing the classic TNR program (ostensibly a no kill shelter) then all the stray cats should be released to where they came from. In other words these cats should not need to be killed unless they have a disease. Cats that are not truly feral but strays that could be rehomed but aren't would seem to be the kind of cat that is destroyed, therefore. It is probably that a large number of these cats are destroyed rather than returned in the majority of shelters. We also know that businesses use cat fur in a wide range of products. This happens in Europe
(Switzerland) and to a
large extent in China and the
East (where they eat
cats).
There is always a demand for animal products to supply a wide range of
businesses. Here are some possible outlets for dead cats:
This problem begs the question of whether cat breeders are to blame or partly to blame for the "crisis". Certainly a substantial number of people think so, including it seems the owners of the website business Craigslist (it is a business even though it's a .org website) who forbid cat breeder classified adverts. I can see the argument. Cat breeders produce a desirable "product". Consumer society responds and buys. More cats are breed. Irresponsible owners abandon or neglect their "purchase". Abandoned and stray cats are the results. But the Humane Society Silicon Valley's work with cats turned wild tells us that the problem is one of neutering and neglect. In other words it is not the cat breeder (the seller) who is causing the problem, but the "buyer", the customer and pet owner. In fact all responsible cat breeders spay and neuter before selling. Further most feral cats are not purebred cats and cat breeders only breed purebred. So the Graiglist policy seems wrong except on an emotional level as it does feel wrong to produce more cats at one end of the chain and kill more at the other end of the line. Almost 75% of shelter cats are euthanized (or killed) ,
which amounts to about 2.2.
million in the USA alone, every year. Photo
of
stray cat © MAR (this photo is strictly copyright MAR)
MAR is the best stray cat photographer. You can see his pictures on his website: www.noranekosyashin.com So, to tackle the problem from the other end means education and more education and this article is one very tiny effort in that direction. Visit: Humane Society Silicon Valley (new window) to learn more. This is a really worthy organization that has been around for 78 years, well before Silicon valley became perhaps one of the richest places on earth. Is there a connection with the wealth of Silicon Valley and the 125,000 feral cat population there? I really don't think so. You probably see more feral cats in poor areas due to lack of education and the difficulties in the humans managing their own lives leaving little time, effort and knowledge to care for a cat.  Photo of
stray cat © MAR (this photo is strictly copyright MAR)
What other people say about feral cats The purpose of reviewing a number of websites that write about feral cats is to see what the general feeling about them is across a wide selection of sources. This, I hope, will tell us whether there is commitment and enough enlightenment to resolving this problem. I mark each article as for, against or neutral in their views on this problem. When I say "for" I mean a sympathetic approach. When I say "against" I mean an unsympathetic and unenlightened approach. These are my views of course.My views are clear but many people have almost opposite views. And the Wikipedia author (who seems to be an Australian - I'm guessing) has a view which is, I think it fair to say, on balance more hostile to the cat turned wild. {Note: Having read 7 of the top websites I decided to select rather than review each one in the top 50 to avoid repetition. I stopped at 12 because all more or less said the same thing - use TNR, trap neuter return}  Photo of stray cat © MAR (this photo is strictly copyright MAR) Wikipedia (against) This is the top webpage as found by Google and I'm disappointed (update Feb 2010 - it seems that is has been moderated somewhat since I last read it when it was frankly biased). This says something about this problem. In the Wikipedia article the author describes how damaging the feral cat is to other wildlife. He refers mainly to the feral cats of Australia, where there is a subsantial feral cat problem. He refers to the transmission of illness from feral cat to human as an example of the negative impact of feral cats (Zoonotic risk). He refers to toxoplasmosis (see cat feces and pregnancy) as one example. It is extremely rare for this disease to be transmitted from a cat living with a human never mind a feral cat who we will rarely see. In addition the jury is definitely out on whether feral cats destroy wildlife in Australia to anything but a very small extent. Certainly it is not in any way significant. Most importantly he totally ignores the causes of feral cat populations. There is not one mention of human involvement. The cause is the single most important topic of discussion in relation to this problem as it is the answer to prevention. the-piedpiper (neutral) This site presents a balanced view. It says that these cats can cause problems when they congregate around or near hospitals and this I can understand. The author says that the most common illnesses suffered by these cats are upper respiratory infections. Lifespan is short at about 2 years she/he says. There is no mention of the root causes or suggestions for a solution however. Cat Action Trust (for) This is a charity dedicated to helping cats turned feral and is therefore very much in tune with how to deal with the problem namely trap, neuter and either re-home or return (if impossible to rehome). They say one unneutered female can produce 120 kittens in her lifetime. They deal with mopping up the consequences of irresponsible cat keeping but do not, as far as I could see, propose anything in respect of long term resolution of the problem. There will never be enough volunteers to trap and neuter. If there were there would be less feral cats and that is not the case. So, we need to look deeper and longer.  Stray cat photo © MAR (this photo is strictly copyright MAR) Celia Hammond Animal Trust - CHAT (for) This is a truly excellent charity run by a resourceful person that we can only admire. She is doing something. There are few who actually do something and she is doing a lot. I would like to see this charity try to change some of the causes of feral cat populations that remain very high in the world, the USA and in the UK, where Celia Hammond estimates that at least 2 million feral cats survive on the streets. As Celia Hammond is a high profile person maybe she can educate more. The charity does mention the power of education. Perhaps we need to get the politicians involved too? This website donates to this charity and a number of other cat charities. Feral Cat Sanctuary (neutral) This is a fine project that was started around 1999 and which appears to have failed to secure enough funding. It is based in Guernsey. The idea was to build a feral cat sanctuary from a derelict vineyard. Such cats were already at the vineyard. Well, sadly I think the concept was flawed. However a good point the author of the site makes about these cats is that they are very sociable and live in colonies. It would seem that the members of the colony support each other and cats form relationships. driftersreach (for) This is a cat shelter in the UK. The provide a valuable service in helping these cats but offer no long term solutions. Cat Protection (neutral) This is a well known cat charity in the UK. They have a leaflet on feral cats. It says little (I know I am being a bit critical but I'd expect more). They do say that these cats are no risk to sheep that are not pregnant and are therefore not detrimental to farmers in that area of their operation. Stray cats provide a service to farmers as mousers. They offer no long term solutions but mention neutering. www.feralcatcare.org.uk (neutral) This site is on the first page of a Google search (ranked 9 on page 1). It is a site that consists of one page, a missing photo and it is frankly dead (last updated 3 years ago!). No criticism of Google at all but this demonstrates how stale and unimaginative the feral cats problem is in the West. There needs to be new initiatives and government needs to be involved. www.feralcat.com (for) This is a much more lively and interesting website about this subject. It contains links to articles by Sarah Hartwell for instance. Her articles point to these conclusions (this is far from a summary):
The Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon (for) On their home page they advocate that cats should spayed and neutered and be kept indoors and/or confined to enclosures and kept on a lead if going out. This would be good for the cats (less road deaths etc.) and for wildlife (less wild birds killed), they say. They say that free-roaming cats (not necessarily feral cats) kill tens of thousands of birds each year. Despite not supporting this statement with hard facts this organisation has the right approach in my opinion. I really think that cats are not the main reasons for wildlife depletion. It is nearly always due to direct human activity such as loss of habitat, pollution and pesticides. If it is due to stray cats it is still due to indirect human activity (abondoning cats and not neutering cats). Above all else what is good about this organization is that they promote tackling the root cause of the feral cat problem by responsible ownership. This is the first site I have come across that stresses this funadamental starting point. National Geographic (neutral) Their article presents the polarized views of anti-feral cat people who think that they kill a lot of wildlife and transmit disease and those who say that killing feral cats cannot be the solution. There is simply no data to support the statment that these cats kill significant numbers of wildlife and as for disease this is simply nonsense. The article written in 2004 stated that there were 70,000,000 of these cats in the US and that there were hundreds of them per square km. The article made no attemmpt to propose real long term solutions. HSUS (for) HSUS is a big organization with a voice but they simply support TNR (trap, neuter, return) and explain that. Bigger more wide ranging ideas and themes are needed and organizations like HSUS should lead the way. Feral cats of Australia have become a bit of an issue for the Australian government (2008 2010). There are supposedly 12 million feral cats in Australia. Research claims that feral cats kill and have a large and negative impact on native wildlife. Some people have argued that the research is biased. It is my view on looking at the feral cats of Australia
problem that the authorities are encouraging inhumane treatment of
feral cats to get rid of them. The problem has affected the importation
of the Savannah
cat into the country.Here are some more links to posts that have been added over time:
China The feral cats of China are some of the worst treated animals in the world. Animals of China have no protection under the law. Feral cats are turned into cat meat
sometimes for human consumption (this might change - I hope so) and
cat fur for trinkets (some of
possibly finds its way to the Swiss
cat fur market).
Feral dogs get poor treatment too. I am worried about the tiger as well!We know that the problem of large numbers is due, ultimately, to irresponsible cat keeping (some call it ownership). We don't know if the problem is being exacerbated by the possible presence of business (see above). We know that despite considerable efforts (on the ground) over many years nothing has substantially changed. The efforts are usually by volunteers at the sharp end excercising the TNR program. This has controlled feral cat populations to a degree, no more. We also know that the numbers of cat keepers is very large and legislation is very difficult to enforce. However, lots of legislation is poorly enforced and abused but it is still effective as people generally comply with legislation especially if there is some (this need not be wide ranging) enforcement and an example is made in conviction and sentencing (I am proposing criminal legislation not civil) Government, either local and/or national, needs to be involved to drive irresponsible cat keepers to become responsible. Being responsible in this instance must mean that neutering and spaying becomes obligatory. There has to be greater control of cat keeping. Examples of maintaining controls over cat keeping could be:
Sources other than as stated below: 1. http://www.aspca.org/adoption/feral-cats-faq.html#lifespan 2. Abbot, I. (2002) "Origin and spread of the cat, Felis catus, on mainland Australia, with a discussion of the magnitude of its early impact on native fauna" Wildlife Research 29(1): 51-74 3. http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/invasive/publications/ cat-impacts/pubs/impacts-feral-cats.pdf 4. Moors, P.J.; Atkinson, I.A.E. (1984). "Predation on seabirds by introduced animals, and factors affecting its severity.". In Status and Conservation of the World's Seabirds 5. Sarah Hartwell 6. Wikipedia authors 7. http://ia310824.us.archive.org/1/items/domesticcatbirdk00forbrich/ domesticcatbirdk00forbrich.pdf 8. http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2007/03/ australias_new_feral_mega_cats.php#more 9. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/09/0907_040907 _feralcats.html 10. http://www.pictures-of-cats.org/ domestic-cats-do-not-decimate-bird-populations.html Sources:
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