“Feral, stray, and pet cats are all members of the same species; they are all domestic cats. But stray cats and feral cats are also different from each other in a very important way—in their relationship to and interactions with people.” (SOURCE: Alley Cat Allies)
Most everyone agrees on the problem: There are way too many stray cats in Lancaster County.
The Humane League of Lancaster County estimates there are about 84,000 feral cats here. Many are furtive felines that people never even see.
These are the cats that scream in the night, spray shrubbery, bury poop in gardens and kill birds, small rabbits and other animals by the tens of millions nationwide each year.
Forced to scrounge for themselves, they often live brief lives of constant hunger and infections.
The dumping of unwanted house cats only exacerbates the problem.
Most everyone agrees that the number of feral cats is a problem in Lancaster city and across the county. Solving that problem, however, has become a thorny issue here.
Until several years ago, feral cats taken to the county Humane League were euthanized at a rate of about 1,500 to 2,000 a year.
The shelter hated doing it, and it took a toll on its staff. But feral cats’ wild nature ruled out adoption as an option. Killing them was considered the most humane option.
On farms, when a barn cat population got too large, kittens were, well, taken care of.
Former state Sen. Noah Wenger got a state law changed that exempted farm cats from having to have rabies shots.
But the feral cat population continued to grow.
Now, at the Humane League and among local cat rescue groups, a new approach known as trap-neuter-return, or TNR, has taken hold.
Colonies of feral cats are trapped, spayed or neutered en masse at clinics run by local vets who often charge reduced fees.
The cats also are given a rabies vaccination and their left ears are tipped for identification purposes. They then are released into the wild at the same spot where they were captured.
People who live near the colonies, known as caretakers, or volunteers from local animal-rescue groups promise to feed the cats and make sure they have shelter in inclement weather.
The idea is that healthy, fed cats will be less of a nuisance and live contented lives on their own. Males no longer will inflict wounds on each other as they fight for females. If fighting is eliminated, it is hoped the cats won’t spread diseases to each other.
Without reproduction, the hope is that the colony eventually will die out.
The local Humane League made the monumental shift from euthanasia for feral cats to TNR in 2008.
An estimated 2,500 to 3,000 cats are now treated and returned to the wild each year at clinics sponsored by the Humane League or local cat rescue groups.
Currently, with an $80,000 grant from PetSmart Charities, the Humane League is entering the second year of a two-year effort that has a goal of capturing about half of the city’s estimated 5,000 feral cats and maintaining them under TNR. Captured feral cats in the city get TNR treatment for free. Click here to read the article in its entirety at Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era
84,000 feral cats? Well, let’s do some hard-cold math, shall we? Using advanced population-growth calculus, at just 2 litters per year (not the 3 or 4 they are capable of), with a 90% survival rate, we find that in just ONE YEAR you’ll have 1,219,050 feral cats.
This means that the average number of NEW cats being born PER DAY from your present feral population is about 3,110 cats — PER DAY.
So, unless you can trap MORE THAN 3,110 cats PER DAY to either sterilize or euthanize them, you are doing NOTHING to reverse their reproduction rates.
Now lets look at how much it’s going to cost you by using TNR methods (data taken direct from TNR advocates OWN resources) …
Estimated Costs Associated With Alteration and Return Per Cat
Trap/Fieldwork $50
Neuter/Spay $40
Physical Exams $40
Vaccinations $40
Estimated Cost of TNR in Columbia, Pennsylvania Per Cat $170
This means that to just MATCH your feral cat population’s breeding-rate, you’re going to have to divert resources from your community in volunteer hours, donations, or outright cash valued at $528,700.00 — PER DAY. Keeping in mind that you must do more than this PER DAY in order to reverse their population numbers. The cost for just ONE YEAR will be $192,975,500.00. An expense that must be sustained INTO PERPETUITY if you cannot trap and sterilize MORE THAN 3,110 cats PER DAY.
Do you know why PetSmart is making that donation? Do you know why the greedy board members of HSUS back TNR? Because they ALREADY KNOW that TNR is a lost-cause and is a HUGE money-maker for them all. You’ll be feeding MILLIONS of cats and putting more money into their pockets if they make their meager $80,000 donation today. Because that’s not even enough to curtail the problem for the number of cats being born in JUST ONE DAY. That’s not even enough money to trap & sterilize how many feral-cats are being born in just FOUR HOURS.
Do you honestly think that everyone is as dumb as all those who fall for this TNR con-artist song and dance? A program that’s being promoted by every person who can stuff their pockets with money made off of the cruel and torturous “attrition” deaths of those TNR’ed cats.
You might be that phenomenally stupid, but I’m not.
There is only ONE method that actually works. But you won’t like it. “Hunted to Extinction” is the ONLY method that is faster than a species can out-breed and out-adapt to. ESPECIALLY for a species like these man-made (selectively bred) cats that can breed 2-3X’s faster than any naturally occurring cat-species. A painful fact of past human behavior that we must now rely on to solve this 100% man-made ecological disaster. And until you grow up and become adult enough to realize this and get the strength of heart to do what is required, you’re going to have feral-cats coming out of your asses and all your native wildlife cruelly tortured to death, annihilated for cats’ play-toys, for the rest of your sad and pathetic lives. While PetSmart and HSUS board-members laugh all the way to their banks.