Sigh!

I now have the reputation in my rescue group of being the "feral cat woman" which isn't SO bad except I really cannot offer much help other than point people to other websites.

Today we had 2 women with different problems..one lady is feeding a mom and 3 kittens and unfortunately she cannot afford to get them fixed but would love assistance. I pointed her to Metro Ferals and I also gave her my email address.

The second lady is a real doozy...she said that feral cats are a "nuisance" and that she tried to call the shelter but they wouldn't come out and take them away (she says she has seen as many as 11 cats) and she was thinking about calling a pest control. She admitted there were 3 people feeding the cats and tried to say that she wasn't a cat hater..just didn't want to deal with them. I explained that if she were to have those cats removed...more would certainly come in their place. I explained the benefits of TNR...gave her Metro Feral and Alley Cat Allies information and also my email. I'll let you know what happens.

Frankly the second situation disturbed me...and I'm concerned that they will not heed my advice...but time will tell.

Katie

I just hope that the 2nd person is not doing any thing dump to the cats .

I hope something good happens to the colony. I hope she does listen to your advice.

Aw Katie, (((((Hugs)))))!!!!!! I always tell people that it sounds cruel, and people with big hearts are soooo wonderful, but their good intentions are actually misplaced, and if they aren't going to sterilize the cats, they should not be feeding them because..... (of all the reasons you already know so well!)

Once people understand that the fighting and spraying will stop after the cats are fixed, they might be more willing to help. Especially if the vaccum effect has been explained. Most people will or do understand that cats are there because the area obviously somehow supports them. What they don't usually understand is that there are literally millions of homeless cats - once they get that, the concept of removing the current cats just means cats that live somewhere near will simply move into the same area sinks in. That's so wonderful that you already include this part when working with people like this.

But there's one other thing you can recommend to people that you might not already be doing: if they don't want to deal with the cats, instead of calling animal control, if they're not cat haters it would be wonderful of them (if after trying local shelter or feral support groups (if there are any) and they can't find help), to call local area vets instead of animal control to see if there are any "crazy cat people" in the area that are willing to help with the situation. Gary and I are not part of any "known" organization around here, but if anyone calls a local vet for help, they take their phone number and give us a buzz. Also, we've helped other distant cats by calling local vets and finding the crazy cat people.

It can be difficult to help people find those willing to help trap and pay for spay/neuter, but there doesn't have to be a local organization present - calls to four or five local area vets will often turn up at least one individual willing to help. Not always - but surprisingly often!

Please keep us posted?

No emails yet...I do hope I made a difference..especially in the second case. Money wasn't the problem...understanding the issue was...I do not know if either of them will contact me or the organizations I referred them to. I think I'm going to set up a separate email for this type of situation and make up some basically sheets to hand out to people who have issues with strays and feral cats. Better to be able to hand them the addresses rather than say..look up this organization on Google.

LDG...Thanks for that information...I will have to ask at the next feral clinic about those "crazy cat loving people"...LOL.

Katie

Katie - are you talking about fact sheets for your area? Or are you talking about information re: the vaccum effect, etc.?

Because.... if you write up stuff that applies to non-area-specific information, we'd LOVE to host it on SPA!!!!!!

I deal with both types of cases a lot as a Board member of my local humane society (we don't run a shelter but do education, intervention, and rescues instead). It is difficult because we are a small organization in a rural area, but we do what we can to help people like the first lady catch and neuter the cats...we can often get vets to help us cover the costs in situations like this. We are hoping our new TNR program will be able to help in situations like the second where we can educate the complainers and get them on board with setting up and caring for thier colony.