Should I put them to sleep or let them free?

Question

I have around 20 cats and more coming, they just come home thru the back yard, some of them just come to have their children and leave them there, some come just to eat. Most of them don't allow me to touch them or be close. I have sterilized some but they keep coming I don't feel putting them to sleep is the best solution because maybe if I let them free some of them could survive. On the other hand, ppl is cruel and could make them suffer and they will suffer because they don't know how to get food by their own, what should I do???

Answer 1

I've been pretty involved in capturing ferals in different neighborhoods to spay/neuter and release them again.

As you've noticed most ferals who have not been fixed look pretty bad. They are skinny, scarred and skiddish. There is a higher incidence of sickness, disease and death.

The end up eating garbage, rats, snakes & lizards or people set food out for them like you.

I'm a member of The Cat Network in Miami, Florida and as a member I buy a $25.00 certificate that covers the cost of spay/neuter and rabies shots with a number of vetrinarians in the area.

Take a look at their site for more information on this subject. If you are interested in doing something in your area look on the internet or contact them, maybe they can help.
http://www.catnetwork.org

Contact your local Humane Society, Animal Services or Cat Rescue program to see if they will come in and help you get control of this group.

I will tell you I've fixed at least 20 feral cats on my street using humane traps rented from the local Cat Network and haven't seen a new kitten in the area for about 5 years. By taking action now you can stop this from continuing and give these cats a good chance at life.

Hope this helps

Btw, I don't test for Feline Leukemia since I know I'm not going to euthanize even if they have it.

Answer 2

Had to make the same agonizing decision myself. I thought it through enough to know what I would do the next time.

First, be aware that in a city, the ferule cat (wild domesticated) is the largest environmental predator threat to birds & other small animals. Since they have no natural enemies, they just multiply & become a worse threat. I know you know!!!!

We had reached a population of 18, with at least 2 pregnancies in the bunch. All local adoption agencies were overloaded & would not take any more. The county animal control lent us a humane trap, & took them to the county. I am well aware most, if not all, were euthanized. It is always a choice of the lesser of 2 or more evils. I made mine. I no longer contribute to the problem of feeding wild cats, no matter how tempted. If not fed they will not stay, move on or die.

I can't tell you what to do. Myself, I would feed the fixed ones once or twice a day at a regular time only when I am there to watch them , & remove the food when they are done. But the choices must be yours.

Answer 3

Letting them run free, after being accustomed to having food readily available, is cruel. If they aren't all spayed/neutered, then then someone else will have to deal with an overpopulation problem just like you are. If they are wild/feral and you are unable to tame them, the most humane thing is to euthanize them. Catch all of them you can, even if you have to use a live trap, and take them to a shelter. It's true that some would survive, but surviving isn't living. Let a shelter handle them, and if you don't have access to a shelter, have them euthanized, it's much more humane, and while might not be the popular thing, it's the right thing to do. I have seven house cats and can't handle anymore. I have to trap and surrender an average of 2 feral cats a week or I would be overrun with cats. Letting cats live on the streets, having or making babies, having to scavenge for food and getting sick an not having medical attention is cruel.

Answer 4

The humane Society is your only answer. A nutered pet is a good Animal ,but without nuitering (Sterilization)these animals multiply and many become sick or nuisances, which must be hunted and killed (destroyed). It is better to let the Humane Society save the ones they can and nuiter those or find homes for them. Then too you must think of the other animals, rabbits, birds, squirells, loose cats destroy and the fights these animals have with other cats and dogs. It seems you are overrun and need professional help and the Humane Society is the place.

Answer 5

Maybe contact some rescues in the area. They could take the cats that are younger or more likely to accept being inside and try to adopt them out, especially the kittens that keep being left in your yard. As for the rest of them, if letting them free means that you stop feeding them, you need to realize that life is very hard for a feral cat that no one is feeding. I would suggest that you go with your conscience. Don't forget that winter is coming. And if you do nothing about the current cat population, it will continue to grow. For some of them, putting them to sleep might be much more humane than letting them starve and freeze.

Answer 6

Call your local animal humane society, they may be willing to come out and help you set traps to capture them. From there, they may be willing to take the animals in and put them up for adoption. And if not, they would most likely be able to point you in the right direction.

Also, humanely euthanizing a cat would be far better than having them roam the streets, in the cold, hungry for food, and risking dying by getting run over, eaten by larger animals, badly injured in cat fights and suffering, etc.

Answer 7

Can you call the humane society in your area?
I don't know why there are so many cats coming into your garden!
Sometimes its humane to put strays to sleep if you can not find a home or at least have them neutered.

Answer 8

The average life span of a street cat is about three years. Apart from not being vaccinated against contagious diseases (an outbreak of distemper can wipe out a feral cat colony in a matter of weeks), there are other hazards to deal with, like traffic, for one thing. A lot depends on where you live. If you live in a city, there is an almost endless supply of feral and dumped domestic cats around. You could be fighting a losing battle.

I live in a small town in the Poconos in PA. My neighborhood is, literally, 8 blocks by 8 blocks. When we moved here after we retired, there was a colony of about 15 - 20 cats in the area. I spotted them, all skinny and straggly on a garbage collection day, as they went from house to house, looking for food in the bags put out for collection. I began feeding on my back porch, in an effort to get them to trust me enough to be people friendly. I had hoped to take them to a shelter to be adopted. Well, it didn't happen, but they started to look a whole lot healthier. LOL

The next best thing is that I watched them when they came to eat at night, spotted the pregnant ones, and noted on my calendar when they appeared to have had their kittens. Then, for a few weeks, I watched the direction they went when they left. I put out the word to neighbors, and they let me know where the cats were nesting. I raided the nests, when the Mom was out, when the kittens were about a month old. I socialized them, and adopted them out through an agency I got involved with here.

In the last year, I have hand raised and placed 9 kittens, and am currently fostering three more. Last Christms Eve, the breeding female brought her one surviving kitten to a box on my back porch and ran off and left it. They do know who is trying to help them. They are much more intelligent than most people think. There was a fire in a vacant house where some of the cats lived and some of them have disappeared for reasons I can only guess. Last night only four cats came to eat.

I tried trappping, but those cats were too wise to enter those contraptions. That is not to say it wouldn't work for you.

Sterilizing them (a quite correct way to refer to both spaying and neutering BTW), is a big help for them and you should be proud of your efforts. Try to find out if there is some organization in your area who might be able to help you. In our area we have an SPCA (they euthanize ferals), but we also have Valley Cat Rescue and PAWS, who do not euthanize and have a few people who are willing to work with rehabilitating ferals.

I wish you every success in your efforts to help them, and for the cats you are helping, I say, "Thank you for your concern and kindness."

Answer 9

Feral cats are best left free, you are doing a good thing by sterilizing the ones you can catch, another good thing would be to try to catch any babies you can and take them to no-kill shelters, the kittens can be calmed, and have good lives (I've done this with 2 local litters and, though the moms hate me, the babies all have good homes now)... good luck

Answer 10

Can't you just let them keep hanging around in your backyard. I mean if you don't mind and it seems like they feel safe there.
Bless you for feeding them and getting some of them sterilized. That's very responsible of you. I love animals and wish they all had nice homes.