Homeless cats working for police in LA?

StefanZ

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Im reading in my swedish newspaper a short article about the police departement in Los Angeles (=LAPD) employing homeless cats as rat catchers. Or rather, rat chasers.

The police had problems with rats. The rats seeking after food everywhere, did seek even in the police´s bags and cases, making nuisance and also destroying equipment.

There were also some homeless cats around. Not any big problem, but problem.

Solution?

The police adopted some of these cats, and simply let them be in the police-area.
The cats dont even need actively catch the rats, they disappar and avoid when cats are around...

There were not more details in this short article.
Were the cats TNR:ed? What was the adoption/emploment about, more precisely?

In any case, interesting info: When we have a TNR-colony around, there are no rat problem. Homeless cats are not only a nuisance as some see them, but also a BIG asset.

Americans, I suppose you know more about this LA-police project? Please tell more!
 
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StefanZ

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Yes, that´it. It is surely this original article my swedish newspaper retells.
Thanks for the link, I will spread it here in Sweden too.

Wonderful story to read. A real Good Chrismas and Happy New Year, if you understand what I feel reading it.


Although there is one faulty fact - which is however contradicted in the text:

"Feral cats cannot be turned into house pets. When they end up in municipal shelters, they have little hope of coming out alive."
my comment: huh? It takes usually time, and it may be difficult, but "cannot" is unthrue! Municipal shelters usually dont having resources of good fostering homes is no proof they are hopeless!

But longer down:

"Garrison worked with two shelters to select the most feral cats possible. (If a cat suddenly gets friendly, the animal is pulled from the pool and, with any luck, is adopted.)"
my comment: See? These most feral cats possible can spontaneously turn into friendly cats - without active fostering.
It is easy to see, WITH active fostering would almost all of them be friendly with time, and most could even be homecats - although some of them would be shy homecats.

TNR and this Working Cats programme is wonderful and very very much useful, but dont talk about ferals cannot be turned into house pets!
 

katachtig

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That is a wonderful story. A repeat of the oldest relationship we have with cats and why the Egyptians raised them to God status.
 

katiemae1277

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That is a very interesting article! Cats are good for something contrary to what most (non-cat loving) people think


and you're right Stefan, sometimes a kitty is just so scared that he/she may appear feral, but then when they realize that people are not going to hurt them, they may revert back to being friendly, I'm glad that they made the distinction to only choose truly feral cats for this project.
 

katachtig

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Originally Posted by keith p

I would hope the cats were fixed, and either micro-chipped or fitted with a collar, otherwise nobody would even know they "belonged" to anyone.
Originally Posted by catcaregiver

I hadn't heard about this. It's very interesting, thanks for bringing it to our attention. I found this story http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...la-home-center
The article from Catcaregiver did mention the following
Garrison worked with two shelters to select the most feral cats possible. ... The cats were then spayed or neutered, vaccinated, micro-chipped and ear-tipped (under anesthesia while the cats are being altered, vets notch an ear tip, the widely recognized sign that a cat is altered).
 
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StefanZ

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Originally Posted by keith p

I would hope the cats were fixed, and either micro-chipped or fitted with a collar, otherwise nobody would even know they "belonged" to anyone.
Yeah, according to the article in Catcaregiver´s link, they are part of a TNR-programme.


I wasnt sure of it when I wrote the first post.
 
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