Hi everyone,
I ended up in touch w/ someone locally from a feral rescue group. I am just going to copy and paste a message I wrote earlier to someone else. Since then though, I have researched the whole "combo testing" issue and can definitely see the other side of it (why it's not really done). Although I don't think this lady I talked to does vaccines either. So, I'd like your opinions about that. Is it beneficial to give feral cats vaccines (those being released back out), should it be done before they are released or is it common to only alter and not worry about anything else?
Here's my message I wrote earlier:
*****************************************************
Okay, so yesterday I was on the phone for about 2 hours w/ this lady
from a local feral rescue group.
I can understand her points and I guess I just need to deal w/ the
harsh realities of this type of work.
They said they don't do any combo testing (except maybe 1 kitten of a
whole litter but never adults). Her philosophy was the cats, no
matter what, were going to die a horrible death and w/ certain
diseases- they can still live many years, and don't beleive in
euthanizing them because of it. I guess my take is they are also
going to pass this on to many other cats and so many will die
needlessly. I guess it comes back to them dying anyway.
She also wasn't very focused on rescue work w/ the adult ferals
(meaning, trying to socialize them). She said they work a lot w/ the
local shelter and another organization to adopt cats (mostly kittens)
out but for the most part- they do not have the time to work w/ each
individual cat. They say they'd rather focus on all the cats that
need to be altered (that that's their main focus).
I told her I may be naive and have a lot of heartache ahead of me, and
that I do believe in rescue and adoption of as many cats as humanly
possible.
She was saying their goal was to possibly have a "shelter" one day but
was on the fence because they're not trying to adopt as much as they
are alter. She said there were a million shelters out there already
and I told her we need a million more.
I am definitely going to team up with them and see how it goes. I
think if I'm there and really make a difference - they'd listen to my
opinion and take it into consideration. They've been doing this for
12 yrs I think - so it's an established organization and she said
their phones ring off the hook.
I just have some different opinions, which is okay - but at the same
time I want to believe 100% in the organization I am putting so much
time into. Like I said, it may just be that I don't have the
experience yet to fully understand the reality of this type of work.
She was saying how she was once told that we can't save this
generation of cats (by letting them back out into the wild knowing
they'll die) but we can help the next generation.
She also brought up another good point that I never thought of. A lot
of times we see cats on busy city streets and think it's awful for
them to be there. She said they try to place ferals back to these
streets over barn homes almost all the time (when applicable) because
it's where they know. She said these cats have not been hit by cars,
not hurt by wild animals, etc. By bringing them to a barn home or
another home in the country, many times they run off to never be seen
again. Most of the time they get lost, they're in the woods (wild
animals) and don't know the roads around their new surrounding so
don't know enough that they're dangerous. At least with the busy city
streets they know they're dangerous and to stay away from them. It
was definitely food for thought. The are obviously more succeptable
to human cruelty but we can only cross our fingers that laws will get
tougher on people who abuse animals, therefore squash a lot of the
chances of it even happening.
I'm sure there's more but I can't think of it right now.
What's everyone's thoughts on this?
*****************************************************
Thanks everyone!
-Teshia
I ended up in touch w/ someone locally from a feral rescue group. I am just going to copy and paste a message I wrote earlier to someone else. Since then though, I have researched the whole "combo testing" issue and can definitely see the other side of it (why it's not really done). Although I don't think this lady I talked to does vaccines either. So, I'd like your opinions about that. Is it beneficial to give feral cats vaccines (those being released back out), should it be done before they are released or is it common to only alter and not worry about anything else?
Here's my message I wrote earlier:
*****************************************************
Okay, so yesterday I was on the phone for about 2 hours w/ this lady
from a local feral rescue group.
I can understand her points and I guess I just need to deal w/ the
harsh realities of this type of work.
They said they don't do any combo testing (except maybe 1 kitten of a
whole litter but never adults). Her philosophy was the cats, no
matter what, were going to die a horrible death and w/ certain
diseases- they can still live many years, and don't beleive in
euthanizing them because of it. I guess my take is they are also
going to pass this on to many other cats and so many will die
needlessly. I guess it comes back to them dying anyway.
She also wasn't very focused on rescue work w/ the adult ferals
(meaning, trying to socialize them). She said they work a lot w/ the
local shelter and another organization to adopt cats (mostly kittens)
out but for the most part- they do not have the time to work w/ each
individual cat. They say they'd rather focus on all the cats that
need to be altered (that that's their main focus).
I told her I may be naive and have a lot of heartache ahead of me, and
that I do believe in rescue and adoption of as many cats as humanly
possible.
She was saying their goal was to possibly have a "shelter" one day but
was on the fence because they're not trying to adopt as much as they
are alter. She said there were a million shelters out there already
and I told her we need a million more.
I am definitely going to team up with them and see how it goes. I
think if I'm there and really make a difference - they'd listen to my
opinion and take it into consideration. They've been doing this for
12 yrs I think - so it's an established organization and she said
their phones ring off the hook.
I just have some different opinions, which is okay - but at the same
time I want to believe 100% in the organization I am putting so much
time into. Like I said, it may just be that I don't have the
experience yet to fully understand the reality of this type of work.
She was saying how she was once told that we can't save this
generation of cats (by letting them back out into the wild knowing
they'll die) but we can help the next generation.
She also brought up another good point that I never thought of. A lot
of times we see cats on busy city streets and think it's awful for
them to be there. She said they try to place ferals back to these
streets over barn homes almost all the time (when applicable) because
it's where they know. She said these cats have not been hit by cars,
not hurt by wild animals, etc. By bringing them to a barn home or
another home in the country, many times they run off to never be seen
again. Most of the time they get lost, they're in the woods (wild
animals) and don't know the roads around their new surrounding so
don't know enough that they're dangerous. At least with the busy city
streets they know they're dangerous and to stay away from them. It
was definitely food for thought. The are obviously more succeptable
to human cruelty but we can only cross our fingers that laws will get
tougher on people who abuse animals, therefore squash a lot of the
chances of it even happening.
I'm sure there's more but I can't think of it right now.
What's everyone's thoughts on this?
*****************************************************
Thanks everyone!
-Teshia
