Saving/managing new feral colony

I was elected a municipal councillor in March, so am becoming more involved in our community problems, but I don't live in the main village so don't always learn things at once. At a council meeting last night we discussed what to do about a group of ferals who have taken up residence behind the village hall. I knew there were kittens there - two weeks ago I almost ran over a group of five 3 month old kittens all lying in a heap right in the middle of the road. I was going to ask at the meeting if anyone knew who owned them, but it turns out they are part of the feral group, and already two have been killed on the road and one was torn to pieces by a fox. Anyway, some of my colleagues want to shoot the cats, some want to drown them, but no-one wants responsibility and they are all scared of going near them. There is one lady in the village who is feeding them.Of course I volunteered to do something! So tomorrow, Sunday, I am going to meet the secretary from the mayor's office, who lives near where the cats are, and we are going to investigate exactly how many there are ( they think around 15) and decide what to do.

I have two humane traps already, and I know the vet will give me a special price on neutering, which the council will pay for.

I think the schedule is this:

1. Make a flyer to distribute in the village asking everyone to neuter their cats at the special price I shall negotiate. And to say please do not feed the ferals while I am trying to set up a management programme.

2. I will set up a feeding station so I can count them and monitor them for obvious health problems.

3. I will gradually introduce the traps and catch and neuter as many as I can.

4. I will try and remove any small kittens and see if I can socialise and adopt them out (may be difficult knowing my record in the past) but possibly some vlllage people might want to help in this cause.

5. Keep my colleagues on the council calm and informed! Very important this as some of them are likely to take things into their own hands. The mayor is on my side, but I basically have only a few weeks to show some results before more radical (but as yet unspecified) action is taken. I know that in a village a few miles away they have caught all their ferals and killed them, I think not humanely.


Life in rural France can be rough and tough. Anyone have any other thoughts, I will be glad to hear them. Fortunately this is happening at a time of year when I am a bit more relaxed and free than usual, at the end of the summer season and before the Christmas markets.

You didnt mentioned again this lady feeding them.  I think she should / could be your natural ally here, as she is apparently concerned and willing to spend time, effort and her own money in this.

With this leaflet and all, is it possible you manage them cats to be the protegees of the village?   Some sort of community project...  "Here in our  little county we do care"

Talk with shop owners, the priest (remind of the tale of the good shepherd and the lost sheep), etc...

Re the group wanting to drown them, as contrast to shooting.

Of two evil things, shooting seems a little milder.  So are they these drowners more evil?  But.  Drowning demands catching them first.   And with catching, almost one third of the rescue work is done - as its often the self moment of catching which is the big problem for many rescuers.  When well catched, they rescuers usually do manage.  

I mean, you may perhaps find more allies sort off.   If they are willing to pay for catching if nothing else.

Remind them also, the glory and honours of being rescuers, or at least, paying for rescuing and giving their OK, is bigger than  being being famed as a mere  killer and destroyer.

Later on you can whisper to the shooting party, congratulate them to their  kindleness for wanting to make the dying mercifully easy and short, but give them as the alternative: they dont need to be killed to be merciful.  If they cats live on and get good lives tx to them, their City Fathers glory and honours will be even greater.

Something like that!   

In my area recently, a county commissioner lost his position because he was heard threatening to shoot some feral cats!  It is illegal here because it is so cruel.

I agree with Stefan.  I would point out that killing them is unnecessarily cruel and would actually defeat the purpose.  First of all, the cats that are shot are not all the cats out there.  Statistics show we only see one feral cat in nine or ten.  They are that good at avoiding humans.  Secondly, if they disposed of all the cats, do they not realize what would happen to the rodent population?

So, gathering the troops seems to be your best approach.  There must be other people who understand that TNR is the humane, and really most sensible, way to deal with this situation.

The PR aspect is important too.  Remind your fellow counselors that they may not want your town to be known as the place where cats were shot (or poisoned)?  I would suggest that at the very least, they will come off looking like a bunch of barbarians.

Anyway, my two cents.  I confess I got very angry at these people - but you can make a difference by keeping a cool head.  Thank you for all you are doing facing this challenge!

Thanks, guys. I am already contacting the lady who is feeding them - I am sorry I did not mention that. But unfortunately it is unlikely that anyone else will want to join in - the village sees them as a nuisance, and it was all I could do at the council meeting to get a suspension of sentence, as it were, so that I have a few weeks to try to show that they can be controlled. If it were not for the Mayor's support on that, then it would be impossible as I would have no funds for feeding/neutering. And she is only doing it because she likes me and knows that I understand cats. So she is giving me a chance, but from one remark she made she does not really believe that I can do anything. We are a very small village - only 120 voters and no shop or permanent priest - there is one who rotates services around several churches. So no people who could be mentors or senior figures apart from the council. As for the village reputation, as I said, another village 15 miles away is killing their cats, and is being held up as a role model! All the shelters are full and are euthanising after 3 days, and they usually won't take ferals, anyway. So I must succeed.

Well, even though I sense they won't care, you can tell them people all over the world think this is barbaric.

Good luck!  I will be praying for you efforts to succeed.

Jenny - I don't really have anything to add other than my hopes/prays for these cat's and that you and the other's will be successful in your TNR efforts. My fear is that, even so, more cats will somehow show up and their future looks bleak if there are so many people against the cats. Humane euthanasia, sad as it to say :shame:, would be my choice rather than the shootings, and other means of eradication. I truly, wholeheartedly commend your efforts and those who stand by you and do sincerely hope you succeed.

I had a similar problem with the property manager of the condo complex where I use to live, though he was at least willing to listen. And it is illegal to shoot cats in Maryland. FWIW: the property manager was from Africa.
He said he would pay for the neutering/spaying of the cats if I then removed them from the condo area. I said I wasn't willing to do that, and informed him about the vacuum effect. As has been pointed out, for every one feral/stray cat you see, there are about eight cats you don't see: until, that is, the one cat you see is killed and then a new one takes its place at the feeding station.
It was a better you know the devil you see (the spayed/neutered cats--and no new kittens) than the devils you WILL see (unspayed cats and new kittens).
Good luck!

Thank you for being a voice for the ferals! Is there a local organization you can contact in France? Maybe you can hook up with them to get guidance and possibly even a couple of volunteers who can come over and help?

Everything is now up in the air again. I went into the village on Sunday, selected two good sites for traps and left them open with food inside and outside. But on Monday morning I got an email from the Mayor asking me to remove the traps as I couldn't put them on Municipal land without some bureaucratic process and paperwork which she has to do, and I mustn't put them on private land without the permission of the proprietor, though one of the sites I chose is in the overgrown garden of a deserted house! And she is again talking about trapping and giving them to the Pound for immediate PTS. She also now says t here are no Council funds for TNR. I have written a mail to all members of the Council explaining why we should TNR, but I don't know what will happen.

When I returned to pick up the traps, there was a black cat inside it, eating. He didn't seem too fussed at my presence, but I waited a few metres away while he finished his meal and then sauntered off. I don't think it would be too difficult to trap them, if he is an example. It seems that there may not be as many as we feared, either, people think there are two females and two males and there may still be one litter of kittens. Sadly, the litter I originally saw are all gone, killed on the road or by foxes.

So I wait. But I have suggested we put out a flyer and maybe call a village meeting to see who is in favour of TNR and who would help.

How frustrating / infuriating.  Vibes for finding some way to turn the mayor round again and get some support for the TNR approach and giving these cats some chance of a life.  

Are there any other groups around who could offer the support funding the vet costs or local vet practice that would assist?

Argh. So sorry to hear about all of the red tape and hoops one must go through in your village to help feral cats and again, I applaud your marvelous effort on behalf of those cats and I do hope you can get some funding. Maybe explaining that once the "group" of cats are spayed/neutered they will stick by their territory and keep other cats at bay. As others said, for every one cat or group of cats removed another cat or group moves in. I have actually gone to the proprietors directly myself to ask if it were alright to trap/TNR feral cats roaming the area. It is most always welcome and appreciated. Of course, TNR in the areas where I live are very much approved.

TNR is a fairly new idea here, I gather, and most people just think that removing the cats will solve the problem. But there are people feeding them (which I have discovered carries a 450 euro fine in France!) and the local vet will give me a large discount on neuters. That is all the help available as the SPA shelter is full and doesn't take ferals anyway.

Well, this may be a blessing in disguise.  You can sell this as a progressive idea that will help your town look good.  Stress the benefits, the vacuum effect, the educational opportunities.  There are so many positives, physical and emotional, I hope someone listens to reason.  The vet may be your good ally, too.  If he/she is willing to give you those discounts, it shows an awareness of the overall problem.

Good luck!

It seems as if we are on again. The mayor has given me permission to put down the traps, although I am not yet sure where, so I am seeing her tomorrow. She still has no real understanding of what is involved, though I have explained it in the council meeting and also in a long email. She says she needs to know what date I will set the traps so she can warn cat owners, though I said it is not one night's work! Anyway, at least now I can go and warn people that the traps will be there, though open at first, and we can take it from there.

Some good uplifting news then. Maybe bringing some information from Alley Cat Allies http://www.alleycat.org/page.aspx?pid=434 along with you when you meet may help the mayor and other's have a better understanding on how to manage feral colonies. BEST BEST of luck, Jenny. :cross:

    What good news.  Really hope things continue to go ahead this time and no more hitches or unpleasant resistance.

Keep everything crossed! Thanks Lauren for those links - I shall translate it tomorrow. None of them speak English.

JennyR said:

Keep everything crossed! Thanks Lauren for those links - I shall translate it tomorrow. None of them speak English.

Click to expand...

EVERYTHING is crossed for this to work in your favor (and those kitties :rub :cross: :cross: :cross: :cross:

I hope you can translate. It would be great if Alley Cat had versions of their so important message for other countries!

I have caught my first cat! I went to place the traps as the Mayor said I could around 2 PM today and there was a small grey cat hanging around. So I thought, why not have a go and I set the trap properly then left to go across the road to complete the paperwork at the MAyor's office. I came back an hour or so later and lo and behold the grey cat had vanished but there was a very angry black male in the cage. I popped him in the car, came home, rang the vet and he has already been fixed, chipped and ear-tipped just three hours later! I have to say the Mayor is impressed. I will pick him up tomorrow morning, keep him here over the weekend and let him go on Monday.

So I think there will be no more trouble. I am now armed with a highly bureaucratic document with impressive stamps on it that gives me permission from the State of France to capture, neuter and identify stray and feral cats. Just in case anyone tries to object.

There are two things not yet sorted - who is to 'own' these cats on the chips and documents? And is there any money anywhere to help me? But we will get those things dealt with and if I end up as legal owner of a couple of colonies of ferals, well it is no more than most of my friends would expect of me!

Oh what good news!
"legal ownership" depends upon the country/city/county you live in.
Some cities/counties in the USA say, if you feed the cat, you own the cat, so you are responsible for care, etc., including potential law suits if the cat bit a neighbor.
Some cities/counties have taken a more enlightened approach and either don't say one way or the other or say, you're not legal responsible.
In some jurisdictions, it is illegal to let an unfixed cat roam outside--but that law is rarely enforced for obvious reasons.

I'm trapping for the first time in three years next week, where I use to live. And need to do it under cover of dark. I want to get a sick looking grey & white Tom cat, who comes around only sporadically but does come around since I started feeding him.