Should shelters w/ high PTS rates refuse to adopt out "Barn Cats"?

Some animals like humans dont like or have a use for the "cushy" life... why not adopt them out for a purpose that will be symbiotic for the cat and the humans... My Zoey was a feral and I am grateful everyday the shelter worked with her and I have a lovely cat cause of it

I hate when shelters do this, particularly if the cat is already an outdoor cat or even semi-feral to fully feral. When I worked at the no-kill shelter here, a woman called in once and said she was aware of the policy of not adopting cats to be outdoor or barn cats, but she wanted to help the agressive or feral cats who wuldn't otherwise be adoptable. The shelters policy was to euthanize the ferals. She knew this and just wanted to help and the shelter said no. I even asked about it and why that was and they said the policy is not to adopt cats to live outdoor. But it was stupid, I mean, rather then euthanize ferals, they could live a happy outdoor life, all spayed and neutered and healthy with someone watching over them. But no, that is not how the policy works.

This really seems dumb to me. Why shouldn't feral cats get a chance at life because of some "policy", that is so unfair. I grew up in the Gulf and we lived in a compound with many other expats. A lot of them would feed the stray cats which lead to more stray cats coming in which lead to ferral kittens. These kittens were not like there parents they did not like people and they would have been miserable indoors.

Relocating feral cats to your home is not a simple process if you want to be successful. I was the recipient of 2 feral cats that were trapped in a city and would otherwise be euthanized if I didn't take them. The humane society allowed me to do this because I was a volunteer, had an existing feral colony and knew how to handle the cats.

I pulled the feral cat relocation protocalls from Allie Cats Alley, talked to other feral cat caregivers, got a lot of advice from TCS and other only forums before I attempted to do this. I built a large indoor/outdoor kennel for them and went thru a 2 month process of relocation. Once released, one of the cats still disappeared within the first month and the other disappeared after a few months. While some groups claim success, it is dicey (and I used the protocals of the groups that claimed success).

I can understand the concern, but still believe that if the only option is to euthanize the cat, particularly if it is feral, that humane societies should provide people the protocals for relocation and allow them to do this. The problem with this is that you don't know if people will follow the protocals and there just isn't enough volunteers to do home visits to see if they are doing it right.

The tactic that most Humane Societies will use is to advocate spay/neuter, so that we don't have a cat overpopulation problem in the first place and we aren't faced with this choice. With limited funding, Humane Societies are simply choosing their battles carefully - being proactive rather than reactive.

Personally...I think individuals looking for outdoor cats should reach out to local TNR groups...not shelters. There are lots of TNR groups that are looking for barn homes for feral cats in precarous situations.

Katie

Many rescue groups also have feral or semiferal cats that have to be relocated, and are highly interested in finding people in rural or semirural areas who are willing to provide food and adequate shelter.

I agree with reaching out to TNR groups, but the fact is that they may not be aware of them and no cat should be PTS when someone is willing to take them. Having little experience with ferals, we managed to relocate a mother cat and socialise her kittens, so it is not impossible for someone who wants a barn cat to do so.

Yes it takes patience etc, but the fact that these people are reaching out to a shelter shows to some extent that they are willing to try - and if the shelter is unwilling to do so, they should at least put them in touch with a TNR group that will

I'm in agreement with that suggestions. Shelters should work together with TNR groups.

As a TNR volunteer in my area, i couldn't agree more with you katie! I think that the problem with this is however that many people still do not know enough about TNR programs or the huge need for farms/barns to relocate feral colonies or even just one or two cats. I think that more definitely needs to be done education wise to get the word out to the public so that they know there is a need for such homes. Are you by chance familiar with Alley Cat Allies? They have awesome brochures about TNR/and relocating ferals/and strays. We always order a bunch of them at my shelter and pass them along to people who are specifically looking for an outdoor type cat- we've had the opportunity to relocate quite a few feral colonies as a result./ The shelter I volunteer at is a kill shelter- however, since our adoption rates are so good, we do not euthanize at all except in the cases of severe illness or another extueniating circumstance- thank goodness/ Every cat that comes in our shelter goes to an indoor only home spayed/neutered and fully vetted...same goes for all dogs- we are very fortunate at our shelter. / However, down the road, at both of the Memphis shelters (both memphis animal services, and the memphis humane society) both are extremly high kill- they are supposed to hold an animal at least 3 days until it is claimed....but i've seen them euthanize after only having an animal for a few hours on many occassions. (Isabella, Jasmine, Velvet, and Ginger(dog) are all rescues from those shelters. Isabella and Jasmine were rescued by a no-kill shelter i volunteered for a while back that did shelter rescues from local high-kills. Both were on "death row"- Isabella was only a few weeks old at the time and had been severly abused by her lousey byb.) I know that those two high kill shelters will adopt out to people that want barn cats/etc...simply because they want every animal to try and get a home otherwise, since they're so overpopulated, they will be euthanized. The shelter that I volunteer for however does not adopt out to people who want an outdoor or indoor/outdoor cat due to the health risks, etc...instead, we reserve those spots for our local TNR program that rehomes the feral colonies and refer people to that program...that's had a lot of success We definitely wouldn't have had this much luck without Alley cat allies and the info they provide