I need opinion's or options

So my husband's mom has some feral cats inside the house. The 2 she has she got from the momma that had kittens under the stairs across the street. She crates them all day (when she's at work) and at night when she goes to bed, because they are wild, or at least one of them. I think they are spayed and neutered (ones a boy, other girl). I guess you could say she is a hoarder somewhat and doesn't want them wreaking everything. Then she has cats that are outside cats, about 3. I'm not really sure about their story but she does feed them everyday outside. I think she tried to give them to the animal shelter but they had too many. Anyway she has noticed that more cats are showing up that aren't here's. She's kind of wondering what she can do about that?

My opinion, and I don't know if its right but either feed all cats inside or find the outside ones homes, because I think that the other cats have pretty much found a food source outside and will continue to get food from her as long as it's outside. She doesn't want the other cats as she is a single mom and just can't support all of them financially. I also hate it that she crates the inside ones. I'm trying to work on what to tell her about that. I know she took the two in but I feel like what good is it if your crating them. Cat's need space to roam, they are hunters, and the inside cats do not go outside at all.

So what do you guys think?!?!

Hmm, what size crate? If it's a good-sized "kitty condo", I don't see anything wrong with crating them, although that is a long time every day. But if it's just a regular cat carrier, that's way to small for extended periods. Maybe you could talk her into clearing a small room (maybe a spare bathroom?) for them instead of crating.

As for feeding outside cats, yeah, if you put food out all the neighborhood cats will show up. Of course, ideally she would have them all fixed and vaccinated, but if she doesn't want to do that she could call her cats into a garage or shed (or into the house) for meals. But if you just leave food out there's no way to control who eats it.

If she isn't fixing the outdoor cats that she is feeding, then she should stop doing it. They will only breed and she'll have more cats to worry about. I've worked feral colonies around my home and as long as you put food out, more of them will keep showing up. The only way I could control the size of that colony was to trap and fix them.

For the kittens inside, while one of them may seem a little wild, now is the time for her to try to get a shelter to take them in. Older feral cats don't adjust as well to adoptions, so shelters will take kittens over adult cats. If she's worried about taking care of the outside cats due to finances, is she sacrificing them to feed these kittens, when the kittens have a chance to be adopted?

She should look for no-kill rescue groups in her area. If you go to petfinder.com and put in her zip code as the search, you will see a list of adoptable animals with the rescue group that has them. You can find a lot more rescue groups that way, as you can't find most of these groups in a phone book. Once you have the name of the rescue group, you can go to their website and find out more information about them. I found a local no-kill group in my area doing this and they helped me with my feral cat population.

Well the crates are very small, specifically just for carrying them one place to another. I feel sorry for them. I'm going to have to talk to her about it and with your backup help it won't be as hard letting her know what I found online.

Poor, poor kitties. I think that is just wrong - and cruel of her to keep cat's in small cat carriers all day and then again all night while she sleeps. Please do what you can to get those cat's some help. They might even be better off (if they are all spayed/neutered :cross living outside IF she cannot get a rescue to take them in or a TNR foster organization. Sometimes there are feral caretaker's who work with TNR organizations that will take in cat's such as your MIL's. I would just do something to help those cat's and to help your MIL understand what she is doing is not in the best interest of those cat's - the way she keeps them crated :shame: Let us know how it goes. Thanks for coming to the site and I hope we can help give you support through this difficult ordeal.

I agree, how tragic for those poor cats to be living day in and day out contained in a tiny cage like this.

It's cruel, cats are not meant to live like this, and I hate to say it but if she won't let them go be free and be cats they were meant to be, they are actually better off being humanely euthanized.

She NEEDS to let them go!

Please convince her. They are fixed, let them go outside. Jeez, it makes me feel sad.