I need your help to stop their suffering!

I apologize in advance if this is the wrong place to post this.

I have asked for help from rescues and feral cat organizations many times, but to no avail. I am hoping someone here can give me advice or possibly help me. My grandma has been feeding feral cats for years. There are currently around 14 cats and a few kittens in the colony and only one adult is fixed. Two females are in heat and at least three or four are noticeably pregnant. I'm sure most of them are pregnant, I just can't tell yet. My mother and I have caught, fostered, and rehomed over 14 feral kittens in the past few years and even kept two we couldn't rehome. My mom will no longer rescue anymore and my grandma will not let any kittens go to a rescue because she doesn't believe in no kills. Nearly all the kittens we don't save suffer and eventually disappear. Those who don't vanish have kittens and contribute to the problem. Some people in the neighborhood trap them and take them to the high kill shelter. They have trapped nursing moms many times and little newborns are left behind. We found a litter of six babies and we bottle fed them, but they all ended up dying. All six babies starved for three days thanks to the people who trapped and killed the FRIENDLY stray mom by taking her to the kill shelter. A little bit later, we found a litter of kittens in the garage. Two had died from the heat and two were barley alive. Their mom went missing a few days before we found them. We took them to the vet and one died the next day. We don't know what happened to the other kitten. A nearby neighbor shoots feral cats who try to catch birds in his aviary. We have called the police but we don't have proof he kills them. I am so stressed out and I want this cycle of suffering to stop. I want to get them all fixed, but it would cost us thousands to vaccinate and fix all the feral cats. And not only that, the neighbor who caused this problem in the first place may do what he did before. He is the cause of all these cats. He used to get kittens for his kids, but when the kittens got big, he'd put the unfixed cats outside and stop caring for them. He may do this again! (He did it less than a year ago, for the sixth time!) He has no regard for their suffering. What will I do? Even if they're all fixed, people will still take them to kill shelters.
I am in such a difficult situation and I need your help. Please, help.

Where are you located? And are there any TNR groups near you to at least stop the colony from growing?

I'm sorry that I don't have much to offer, I know how that is when you see stuff and are powerless to help

Do you have maybe a program with the local police where you can talk to an officer on a casual basis? Maybe they would come out and talk to that man, I'm pretty sure abandoning animals is illegal and when they agree to talk to them it would not be an official charge and you would not need evidence and I'm sure they would not mention your name.

Depending on what level of civilization your city is, they might do that, of course if it's a bad city, the police probably have more important thing to do than these relationship programs

I hope you can catch these cats, you could start a page on Facebook and tell everyone you know and even start a foster group for the cats, so more people will know about it. PM me so we can talk about it, hope this helps!

catluvr101 said:

I hope you can catch these cats, you could start a page on Facebook and tell everyone you know and even start a foster group for the cats, so more people will know about it. PM me so we can talk about it, hope this helps!

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 I will definitely message you. I think that it's a great idea. Thank you!

Margd said:

Where are you located? And are there any TNR groups near you to at least stop the colony from growing?

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The feral cats are located in West Covina CA, where my grandma lives. I live in Riverside County. I have not been able to find TNR programs or rescues that can help me.

Playerdark said:

 
I'm sorry that I don't have much to offer, I know how that is when you see stuff and are powerless to help

Do you have maybe a program with the local police where you can talk to an officer on a casual basis? Maybe they would come out and talk to that man, I'm pretty sure abandoning animals is illegal and when they agree to talk to them it would not be an official charge and you would not need evidence and I'm sure they would not mention your name.

Depending on what level of civilization your city is, they might do that, of course if it's a bad city, the police probably have more important thing to do than these relationship programs

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Yeah. The police and animal control have been called on that man multiple times. He says that the cats are not his and that they are my grandma's. Both the police and animal control say there's no proof so nothing can be done to him. No programs that I know of. Unfortunately, no one seems to want to help save these cats, they just trap them & send them to kill shelters.

I would love to help, but I'm at my limit here now, with a sick cat that cost me lot of money

I would say maybe start some fundraising campaign, but those things are no money generator unless you have people already who would donate money, so you cant just create a campaign and hope to attract people there, you have to have people already and direct them to that campaign.

Maybe you could talk to neighbors, give them flyers, direct them to a website you create and ask for donations or so. I know it's easier said than done, but I don't know much advice either. Maybe you can find a doctor who is willing to help with cheaper surgery or so. We have a clinic here in my area that does one surgery for 100$, they are part of a campaign I believe, but its still a lot of money

Get in touch with Alley Cat Allies, The ASPCA and The Humane Society. Ask if someone in your area is doing something to help feral cats so that you can team up with them, or if they have any TNR clinics in your area. I'm sure there must be some way one of these groups can help you.

Thank you for all you are trying to do for them.

I appreciate your feelings for these cats, colonies like this are all over the place, literally. Such a sad state we live in.....

I am in the Bay Area, and although I don't personally know of who is down that way that would help, but I am positive there is help! 

The key first off is finding low cost spays/neuters.

Here we have a feral cat group, we have Friends of Ferals, and Friends of Animals, along with several others as well as individuals who feel as passionate about helping ferals as we do.

Over the years I myself have tnr'd 13 colonies in my town, and feed them permanently, so off I go, every other night on my cat route.

There are so many different kinds of places where you will find help with low cost.

The humane societies, they get their cats fixed someplace, see if they will allow you to use their vet to get these ferals fixed.

Same thing with SPCA, ours here has low cost, $30.00 for a feral, male or female.

Even my rescue group will allow trapped ferals to be fixed my our vet, who charges me/us $25 & $35. 

The feral cat group does 3 runs per month and costs $20.00 each.

Marin Humane does ferals out of county for $35.00 each.

So you see they really are out there, and you may find more help then you thought you would, but you have to really dig and seek out the help.

Trapping is easy. Even if you trap one night a week, you can easily get at least 2 or more each time, before you know it the job is done and your Grandma now has what is called a controlled colony.

The best part of all? Once a feral is trapped, fixed and spends 24 hours trapped, once released they won't even think about stepping a paw in to another trap. Not for literally years a=if ever.

So no worries about anyone trapping a fixed cat.

Besides, for an extra $5.00 you can get them chipped, which means if anyone ever did trap one of them and takes it to a kill shelter, that chip will save their lives! It is protocol that all are scanned upon arrival, and you would get a call. No euthanizing is going to happen.

In my area(Denver) once a month the main shelter Dumb Friends League, they do a free spay/neuter. 4 cats per household. your shelter or maybe a rescue could do something like that. How many feral cats do you think are in that area?

Playerdark said:

 
I would love to help, but I'm at my limit here now, with a sick cat that cost me lot of money

I would say maybe start some fundraising campaign, but those things are no money generator unless you have people already who would donate money, so you cant just create a campaign and hope to attract people there, you have to have people already and direct them to that campaign.

Maybe you could talk to neighbors, give them flyers, direct them to a website you create and ask for donations or so. I know it's easier said than done, but I don't know much advice either. Maybe you can find a doctor who is willing to help with cheaper surgery or so. We have a clinic here in my area that does one surgery for 100$, they are part of a campaign I believe, but its still a lot of money

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I understand! Thank you for helping that sick cat though. I will try what you said, maybe they can help.

Norachan said:

 
Get in touch with Alley Cat Allies, The ASPCA and The Humane Society. Ask if someone in your area is doing something to help feral cats so that you can team up with them, or if they have any TNR clinics in your area. I'm sure there must be some way one of these groups can help you.

Thank you for all you are trying to do for them.

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 I contacted Alley Cat Allies feral friends network, hopefully someone there can help. No TNR clinics near me, but I'll try finding vets that give low cost spay/neuter. I just need to keep looking. Thank you!

catwoman707 said:

 
I appreciate your feelings for these cats, colonies like this are all over the place, literally. Such a sad state we live in.....

I am in the Bay Area, and although I don't personally know of who is down that way that would help, but I am positive there is help! 

The key first off is finding low cost spays/neuters.

Here we have a feral cat group, we have Friends of Ferals, and Friends of Animals, along with several others as well as individuals who feel as passionate about helping ferals as we do.

Over the years I myself have tnr'd 13 colonies in my town, and feed them permanently, so off I go, every other night on my cat route.

There are so many different kinds of places where you will find help with low cost.

The humane societies, they get their cats fixed someplace, see if they will allow you to use their vet to get these ferals fixed.

Same thing with SPCA, ours here has low cost, $30.00 for a feral, male or female.

Even my rescue group will allow trapped ferals to be fixed my our vet, who charges me/us $25 & $35. 

The feral cat group does 3 runs per month and costs $20.00 each.

Marin Humane does ferals out of county for $35.00 each.

So you see they really are out there, and you may find more help then you thought you would, but you have to really dig and seek out the help.

Trapping is easy. Even if you trap one night a week, you can easily get at least 2 or more each time, before you know it the job is done and your Grandma now has what is called a controlled colony.

The best part of all? Once a feral is trapped, fixed and spends 24 hours trapped, once released they won't even think about stepping a paw in to another trap. Not for literally years a=if ever.

So no worries about anyone trapping a fixed cat.

Besides, for an extra $5.00 you can get them chipped, which means if anyone ever did trap one of them and takes it to a kill shelter, that chip will save their lives! It is protocol that all are scanned upon arrival, and you would get a call. No euthanizing is going to happen.

Click to expand...

I know, it's a shame there are so many cats that need help! I'll keep looking for a place. I really want to save these cats! I feel better now knowing they probably won't go in the traps after being caught. I will definitely try to get them chipped so I can reclaim them if they do. Thank you so much.

catluvr101 said:

In my area(Denver) once a month the main shelter Dumb Friends League, they do a free spay/neuter. 4 cats per household. your shelter or maybe a rescue could do something like that. How many feral cats do you think are in that area?

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I will try asking around again. There's really nothing here. They have a couple shelters nearby, all high kill shelters. They only hold domestic cats for four days before euthanizing them... and the Humane Society we have is horrible. Dirty cages, mean people (a guy who worked there even kicked a dog in front of everyone once). I would guess easily around 30 cats and 10 kittens so 40 or so total in the whole neighboorhood. They've had over 200 kittens in the last several years, but only 20 made it to adulthood. I see a few new cats every month, but they aren't regulars in the colony.

Aww. This definitely needs looking after. Any luck on that face book page? I would help you if I could. Also any luck trying to start that foster group?

No one from the feral friends network is answering. I have emailed the Pasadena Humane Society and will most likely get turned down (we are out of their service area), but I hope they won't. Is it much too difficult to relocate feral cats? We will lose this house in a few years or less and no one else feeds them. I will still get them fixed until then, but does anyone know what I can do when we lose the house? I am worried for these cats.

catluvr101 said:

Aww. This definitely needs looking after. Any luck on that face book page? I would help you if I could. Also any luck trying to start that foster group?

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I am looking into it but I am having a hard time getting the word out. I will try talking to a rescue in a few days that I volunteer for and see if they can help me.

Ferals are really hard to relocate I imagine. I had one very young feral cat in my garden and it took me two and a half years before I could take her to a vet, but for older ones I would imagine it's impossible to do much more for them than to neuter and set free again, can't really run their lives. Once they're past a certain age without human contacts, they are unable to learn a new behavior from what I hear.

I hope everything turns out good. Do you need help with the Facebook page?