Our house abuts a wilderness area that’s been home to a colony of feral cats that the neighborhood has cared for for years (including spaying and neutering, and finding homes for the amenable ones). A couple of months ago a new family moved in across the street, and just now they had Animal Control out to gather up the cats. These are not adoptable cats, else they’d all have been homed already.
They took out a hit on the cats, basically. Motherfuckers.
While cats are inarguably cool, they are also one of the greatest human-caused dangers to life on our planet. They did the right thing.
We bought a house that, courtesy of the previous owner, has a very “bird friendly” yard. We also have an outdoor cat that someone dumped in my front yard when she was a kitten. We nursed her back to health and had her spayed. She has lived at my in-laws farm for a few years. We discussed bringing her to our new house and decided that, because she is an extremely effective serial killer, she will stay on the farm. It’s possible to love cats while also recognizing that they can be an invasive species in some circumstances. Their nearly unparalleled hunting skills are an asset to them and a serious threat to the creatures around them.
I live in a town that seems to embrace ferrel or outdoor cats. It’s really unfortunate that I have to consider if I am setting up a bird feeder or a cat feeder in my yard.
Thanks for letting yours live its best life on the farm. The real farm. Not the proverbial one.
A neighbor of mine started feed a couple stray cats. The population has exploded. Unlike OP’s area, there’s not really any support for TNR programs in my area. It’s horrible for the cats, the neighbor that fed them moved. So, the cats are malnourished, infested with fleas and mites, get attacked by dogs in the backyards. It’s horrible for the homeowners too since these cats are marking their territory which is stinking up the sides of the homes, outdoor furniture and they are tearing up gardens. When I first moved here, there were tons of hummingbirds. Haven’t seen one in awhile and I miss them.
I’d never put much thought into it, but a few years back I was doom scrolling and came across a research paper that talked about the just pure damage feral cats cause. Between 1-3 BILLION birds killed globally, that’s insanse!!
And I like cats but letting them run wild just isn’t the way. I feel that way about any feral animal, or invasive species. Clear them out.
Yeah invasive species are bad regardless of how cute they are. In the aquarium hobby pretty much all of the coolest species are invasive. I’m not completely happy about banning imports for the hobby, but I still support it. That’s just the cost of being a responsible pet owner.
Probably not. The problem with catching feral cats is that it creates a territorial vaccum, causing feral cats from neighboring areas to just move in to the now-empty territory. Those cats were neutered, meaning they couldnt reproduce and contribute to the population, but now there’s a good chance that non-neutered cats will move in and create even more cats and just make the problem bigger.
They can still hunt and provide safety to other cats which can reproduce. Trap and release is better than nothing for sure.