Alley Cat Rescue Cats

Can we win for the cats, and help save birds as well? Yes, we can!

I am convinced of this. Even among all the naysayers and the multi-million-dollar environmental groups that oppose our work, I still think we are on the right path! The cats need defenders, they deserve to live, and they deserve to have someone fight for them. We are their only voice. And by sterilizing stray and feral cats, we are (and for decades have been) saving cats’ lives through nonlethal control, reducing the numbers of outdoors cats in a scientific and humane way, thus helping birds and wildlife as well.

Are cats hunters? Are cats carnivores? Do cats kill birds and wildlife? Do we, the TNR people, care about this?

A resounding YES to all of the above.

Cats do hunt---but this is a complex issue. Not all cats hunt. And most cats catch rodents not birds. They are built to be rodent specialists.  And yes, TNR people who support the cats do care about birds and other wildlife. I love all creatures. I rescue and save earthworms from the pavement during rainstorms and I rescue and relocate spiders to places where they will be safe. I only kill mosquitoes, flies and fleas. Nothing else.

The real issue, as wildlife biologist Roger Tabor put it, is whether prey populations can sustain the predation.

On continents, prey species have survived predation for centuries. In fact “The State of the Birds Report 2009” states: “The urban/suburban indicator, based on data for 114 native bird species, shows a steady, strong increase during the past 40 years…”

FOLKS, THIS HAS TO BE HIGHLIGHTED:  IT IS A MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF THE CAT PREDATION AND BIRDS-IN-DECLINE ISSUE.

 The truth is that most feral cats live in urban and suburban areas, and yet urban birds continue to increase. The truth is that in feral cats have a propensity to scavenge from human trash, plus of course when humans see them scavenging, they put out cat food. Plus the cat is a rodent specialist and even when he has to hunt to fend for himself, small mammals are much easier for him to catch.

Now, having been shown clearly that bird populations in urban areas have been increasing each and every year for 40 years, and for years before that urban birds population numbers remained the same, do the evironmental groups ever point this out?

Let me see: They extrapolate and exaggerate the numbers of birds killed by cats, and they do not make anything of the fact that urban bird populations are increasing, even though most of the “millions” of feral and outdoor strays live in urban environments?

I am thinking that perhaps they have another agenda? An anti-cat bias?

This is sad not only for cats but for birds as well.

Recent research by David I. King of the USDA Forest Service Northeastern Research Station and John H. Rappole of the Smithsonian Conservation and Research Center points scientists in a different direction in the search for the cause of bird declines. While many scientists worry about loss of breeding habitat, the evidence gathered by King and Rappole indicates that the blame may rest more with destruction of the tropical habitat where the birds spend winters.

In Tropic Cascades: Predators, Prey, and the Changing Dynamics of Nature, editors John Terborgh and James A. Estes show how numerous studies have highlighted the perverse consequences that can result from  “nuisance control”: the unleashing of even worse nuisances (i.e.mesopredators). For example control of raccoons in Florida to protect sea turtle eggs paradoxically resulted in increased predation on the eggs because another predator, the ghost crab, was released from control by raccoons.

And a poisoning program recently on an island in Alaska's Aleutian chain, intended to save native birds from introduced rats, has caused the death of more than 420 birds, including 46 Bald Eagles.

The rodenticide brodifacoum was applied and caused the death of Gulls who ate the bait, and then Bald Eagles died from eating the Gull carcasses.

This is not an isolated case. This has been happening in islands for many years.

According to Australian environmentalist Frankie Seymour, lethal control of “alien” animals does not work. She says: “Reducing a population of mislocated animals is a complete waste of time (and money) unless you are prepared to keep on reducing it—killing and killing and killing, generation after generation after generation. The moment you turn your back for a year or a season, the population will return to full occupation of all available niches.

“Lethal competitor animal control methods are about temporary concealment of problems. They exist to provide farmers with an on-going excuse for rural mismanagement, and governments with an enemy they can blame instead of addressing the real causes of environmental and ecological degradation.”             

 How can we really help birds? 

1) Reduce your paper and wood consumption-- use cloth bags for shopping

2) Reduce your oil consumption --start a carpool--ride your bike-- take mass transportation.

3) Reduce your beef consumption--especially fast food & processed beef to save rainforests.

4) Hold businesses accountable-- for practices that are socially or environmentally destructive.

5) Support sustainable farming--support The ‘Fair Trade’ movement

6) Buy “Bird-Friendly” (Shade-Grown) coffee, bananas, and chocolate-- grown under the canopy of trees instead of clear cutting.

7) Plant a garden for Birds--blackberries and wild cherries--dogwoods, spicebush, conifers, bayberry, hawthorns, crabapples, sunflowers

8) Rescue and TNR all those stray and feral cats in your neighborhood. Get your neighborhood involved in a Spay/Neuter Marathon to get homeowners’ cats fixed.

Killing and shooting feral cats??

LINCOLN, Neb. -- A report that recommends killing feral cats as a way to control the animals, including a primer on how to shoot a cat, is stirring emotions among bird and cat lovers.
The University of Nebraska at Lincoln's study found that neutering or spaying is ineffective at eliminating feral cat colonies, though useful in reducing colonies' expansion.
One official from the American Bird Conservancy calls the report "a must read" for communities with a feral cat problem.
But critics note the wild cats help control rodent populations, and say habitat destruction, herbicides and other issues are a bigger threat to birds.
They also question the report's finding that feral cats' killing of birds costs the U.S. $17 billion, when accounting for how much bird watchers, hunters and others spend on the hobbies.

From Louise Holton, Alley Cat Rescue : Feral cat TNR DOES work

First go to Vox Felina's webpages and read about how these so-called "studies" on cat predation are all flawed and exaggerated. Secondly, TNR DOES work. I have TNR'd many colonies during the last 20 years that no longer exist today. The cats all died eventually---some at 12 to 15 years old. (so much for "feral cats live short, miserable lives".)
The thing is they (the anti-cat folks) look at a couple of colonies who still have cats in them 15 or so years later, and say TNR does not work. The truth of this is the U S is a CONTINENT and we have no laws or even ways of implementing any laws to force people to sterilize their housecats. Nor can our animal control agencies keep up with people abandoning cats, so colonies will have a constant influx of new animals. But in every colony on a college campus, or any of the colonies the anti-cat people cite, the numbers are down from around 1,000 to even 2,000 cats to 500 or less.
Thing is: THEY will not listen. THEY have made up their minds that feral cats are Invasive, alien, exotic pests (even though cats have been living in the U.S. for over 500 years in a feral state) and have taken over as Mesopredators as we killed all the larger predators such as wolves and cougars.
Every study shows that even if cats rely solely on hunting, rodents are their main prey. A small number of cats become "bird specialists" but for the main part, actually feral cats live in cities and urban areas, and their main source of food is HUMAN GARBAGE.
ALSO....Only on small islands have they been able to eliminate feral cats, and some islands took 16 years (Marion Island) to do this, and other islands (Macquarie) became a disaster zone after they eliminated feral cats. So how in the heck do they plan to wipe out millions of cats on a Continent? And what will happen to our cruelty laws? So you are then allowed to go out and shoot any cat at will? What about pet cats??
I could write a book on this topic, but don't want to go on too much. Let's finish with a warning from Dr. John Terborgh in his book "Tropic Cascades": Dr Terborgh warned that eradication of cats alone on islands could result in a release in the rat populations and intensify bird declines. Now imagine the rat populations exploding on continental USA?
Dr Lilith in Australia found that protecting and restoring the habitats of declining native wildlife may be MORE IMPORTANT than simply controlling where pets can go. She said there was a popular perception that cats were the main problem in conserving small mammals, but vegetation and ground cover density appear to be a more important issue.

When Will TNR Opponents accept our work to help cats and reduce their numbers?

Veterinarian Dr Gary Patroneck writes: “Complete reconciliation between cat advocates, wildlife protectors, and public health authorities may not be possible, but conflicts could be minimized if risks were portrayed without exaggeration or minimization.”

At Alley Cat Rescue we have always acknowledged that cats are predators. They catch small rodents like rats and mice. And yes, some cats catch birds.

This is what I have been saying for almost 20 years:

1. Cats are rodent specialists ----they are built to sit- and -wait for small animals to come out of holes and burrows. I have personally witnessed this many times in a colony I was caring for in Langley Park, Maryland. Many mornings one cat in particular would be sitting patiently outside a hole in the cement paving where I had seen mice and even rats go down.
2. Some cats do become bird specialists.
3. Feral cats are “opportunistic feeders”---they will eat what is most easily available, without having to expend too much energy on obtaining their food
4. Feral cats become scavengers, eating from human trash and garbage. This is how they became “domesticated” 9,000 years ago. The African Wildcat (ancestor of our modern housecat) found rodents eating stored grain in the Middle East and North Africa, and they preyed upon the easily-available rodents, then as the villages made friends with the cats, probably because of their hunting prowess—they were fed table scraps, and probably found bits of meat thrown out in human trash.
5. Much of the so-called devastation cats have on biodiversity comes from island studies, where many birds are ground-nesting and have not evolved with mammals. Therefore the cats that were taken on ships to islands to control the introduced rodents, do prey on native birds, but they also keep the rodent population in check, and if the cats are poisoned or trapped and killed, the rodents simply multiply rapidly and then eat the birds’ eggs or even prey on the baby birds. Which defeats the whole concept of killing the cats to protect the birds.

Feral cats are simply filling the niches left open by natural predators that have been driven to extinction by humans. Cats have filled niches left by native predators killed by our own government and by farmers and hunters…animals such as foxes, grey wolves, coyotes and wildcats (bobcats, mountain lions, jaguars, ocelots). These animals were killed in their millions by the US government’s Animal Damage Control program to protect farm animals from predators. Native preda­tors also lost their prey animals due to humans overdeveloping the land.

Mesopredator release is a fairly new concept that is gaining approval. When larger predators are removed or killed, and are taken out of an ecosystem, the number of mesopredators (defined as medium-sized predators, such as raccoons, skunks, snakes, cats, and foxes) increase in abundance. In other words they fill the niches left open by the removal of larger predators.

A Columbia University study found that “reducing cats’ effect on the ecosystem may actually have a negative impact upon some native species due to the possibility of ‘mesopredator release effect’. The study also recommended that we confront the cat population problem with a combination of methods: “enlist the “trap-neuter-return” style of feral management and combine it with incentives for owners to sterilize their pet cats.”

So what is everyone doing?

Well some of us rolled up our sleeves and started trapping and sterilizing to reduce and control cat populations. This started seriously in 1990 as several large TNR groups formed in Florida, North Carolina, San Diego, Portland, and here in Maryland, Alley Cat Rescue’s headquarters. Each group has spayed and neutered tens of thousands of feral cats.  Not only has ACR actually trapped and neutered thousands of feral cats here in Maryland, D.C. and Virginia, we have also helped countless people all across the country through our National Cat Actions Teams. Smaller groups in nearly every city and town in the U.S. also have started TNR programs. Ordinary individuals have trapped the “backyard or porch strays” and had them fixed.

Other folks are still afraid of us, and complaining about “too many cats” and yet doing nothing about it. Sadly some animal shelters are still trapping and killing—despite the evidence that this does not help; and in fact can be counter-productive, as new cats from the surrounding areas quickly take advantage of the available niches and move in to repopulate the areas.

Dr Julie Levy, Founder of Operation Catnip, says: “Eradication of feral cats has only been accomplished on small uninhabited islands in which a combination of poisoning, shooting, trapping, and a deliberate release of infectious diseases was used over decades at a cost of millions of dollars.”

The TNR movement is growing and gathering converts every day. We do hope the attacks will stop, as it uses up resources that could be used to help the cats. We need to have more low-cost clinics helping people with TNR. We also need to use these clinics to help those who can either cannot afford to fix their own housecats, or who for some other reason will not fix their cats.

If we do not PREVENT new cats from entering colonies or from forming new colonies, we will just be spinning our wheels.  ACR runs a weekly low-cost spay-neuter clinic to do just this.

But please, do support those people helping these community cats. Compassion and being humane and ethical should be rewarded, not penalized, and certainly not belittled.

Photos of Leg-Hold Traps

New Zealand is using leg-hold traps to catch feral cats

New Zealand, in my opinion, use some horrific methods to "control" so-called nuisance and feral animals. The latest is the use of leg-hold traps. Even the "soft-jaw" traps are still cruel. Its an open trap and the cat gets caught by one leg and then thrashes around for hours trying to free himself. Sometimes they try to bite off their leg in trying to get free. How this is seen in any way to be "humane" is totally beyond me.

"Peacock, a little stunned by it all, says feral cats are a real problem, that they use soft-jawed leg-traps and it is all part of a transparent and legal process. Callers ring in with their feral animal marketing slogans. Peacock says Tas has stopped using 1080 poison on possums. He says all CRC's need to have a commercial aspect to their operation.

"This is an accurate account - I was a bit stunned. We do support leg-hold trapping of cats using soft-jaw traps (as part of a management program, which it obviously was in this case); we don't employ people to soothe animal welfare concerns (I sit on two government working groups on animal welfare and our CRC has a policy not to undertake research where the welfare outcome can be predicted to be worse than currently available methods); and we don't hide our commercial members of the CRC - they are all appear on our website."

Killing feral animals does NOT solve the problem. A far better method is to TNR the cats--trap, neuter,return the cats to stop the breeding. Trapping random cats in this fashion, then killing them, if they are not already dead from blood loss after this horrific trapping, is just a stop-gap, lazy, quick-fix. Other cats left behind are going to continue to breed and they will continue to have a "feral cat problem"

I will be adding some addresses to this site for those compassionate people who want to voice their opinions that this is archaic and barbaric.