Trap, neuter, release of feral cats is cruel
05/01/07 17:42
Home News Tribune Online 01/5/07
The South River Borough Council's decision to officially sanction and regulate local trap, neuter and release efforts may seem to be an innocuous way of controlling the area's feral cat population, but the initiative is a blunder. For one, the practice known as TNR is an environmental nightmare. For another, the borough has promised to seek grant dollars so that a group of residents can expand the program even further. As a result, instead of getting feral cats out of the wild — where they have never belonged and do enormous damage every year — the borough is inviting even greater harm.
The South River Borough Council's decision to officially sanction and regulate local trap, neuter and release efforts may seem to be an innocuous way of controlling the area's feral cat population, but the initiative is a blunder. For one, the practice known as TNR is an environmental nightmare. For another, the borough has promised to seek grant dollars so that a group of residents can expand the program even further. As a result, instead of getting feral cats out of the wild — where they have never belonged and do enormous damage every year — the borough is inviting even greater harm.
Trap, neuter and release advocates somehow have
convinced themselves and large portions of the public
that TNR is a humane and responsible means of keeping
feral cat numbers in check. Far from it.
In the South River program, cats are caught and given medical care, including vaccination and neutering. Then they are returned to their colonies, where they receive food and human-constructed shelter.
Unfortunately, while domestic felines are cuddly, warm and friendly companions to their owners, feral cats are nothing of the sort.
Even granting the claim that feral cats treated by a veterinarian are free of disease, they still bite and claw. It doesn't mean either that other cats — untested and unvaccinated — aren't drawn to the food. The disease risk, including rabies, is never really really gone.
Nor is the threat presented by feral cats to other wildlife. The National Audubon Society estimates outdoor cats are responsible for the death of millions of birds and possibly billions of small mammals every year; studies show cats have contributed to widespread declines in the populations of certain warbler species and other songbirds — some of them endangered.
That carnage moves up the food chain. Song birds are part of the menu for other animals. Declines in species of hawks, falcons, snakes and larger predatory mammals may also be linked to the spread of feral cats.
Finally, wild strays live, on average, less than five years, whereas indoor cats often live to 17 or more years of age. Allowing cats to live outdoors enables territorial fights and death by automobile and disease.
In short, TNR is cruel, not kind or smart.
Animal welfare is a noble cause, but TNR programs cater to a single species — one that is outside of its natural element — over the welfare of dozens of others. The cost is huge. Human health and environmental integrity should be the borough's higher concerns. Harsh as it might sound, South River officials should fulfill their primary obligation — that of the public health — by removing and destroying feral cats. Pet owners have a duty as well to spay, neuter, vaccinate and keep their cats indoors.
In the South River program, cats are caught and given medical care, including vaccination and neutering. Then they are returned to their colonies, where they receive food and human-constructed shelter.
Unfortunately, while domestic felines are cuddly, warm and friendly companions to their owners, feral cats are nothing of the sort.
Even granting the claim that feral cats treated by a veterinarian are free of disease, they still bite and claw. It doesn't mean either that other cats — untested and unvaccinated — aren't drawn to the food. The disease risk, including rabies, is never really really gone.
Nor is the threat presented by feral cats to other wildlife. The National Audubon Society estimates outdoor cats are responsible for the death of millions of birds and possibly billions of small mammals every year; studies show cats have contributed to widespread declines in the populations of certain warbler species and other songbirds — some of them endangered.
That carnage moves up the food chain. Song birds are part of the menu for other animals. Declines in species of hawks, falcons, snakes and larger predatory mammals may also be linked to the spread of feral cats.
Finally, wild strays live, on average, less than five years, whereas indoor cats often live to 17 or more years of age. Allowing cats to live outdoors enables territorial fights and death by automobile and disease.
In short, TNR is cruel, not kind or smart.
Animal welfare is a noble cause, but TNR programs cater to a single species — one that is outside of its natural element — over the welfare of dozens of others. The cost is huge. Human health and environmental integrity should be the borough's higher concerns. Harsh as it might sound, South River officials should fulfill their primary obligation — that of the public health — by removing and destroying feral cats. Pet owners have a duty as well to spay, neuter, vaccinate and keep their cats indoors.
