Why are we taking care of Feral Cats?

Question

We can not take care of each other. We can not feed all the people on the planet but here in America millions are being spent to catch, sterilize, release and feed feral cats. Where are our priorities ?

This has got to be one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard of. These people are animal lovers, but they prefer cats over song birds, chip monks, rabbits, and all the other NATIVE animals that feral cats kill by the billions. Whole species have been wiped out by cats.

This notion that putting sterilized cats back into the wild keeps other, non sterilized cats from taking their place is bogus. If you put sterilized cats in one place it just forces the non sterilized ones to move to a second place.

Seriously if you are putting food in feral cat's mouths, it is not going to the mouths of starving PEOPLE.

Saving feral cats

Weird

Sick

Co Dependant

People will eat cat food. There are stories of elderly people in America on a fixed income eating cat and dog food. And believe me people in the third world would eat cat food. Hell they even eat cats. It is a delicacy in China.

Answer 1

It is because Feral cats can't get food stamps.

Answer 2

Well, since it's someone volunteering their own time and money to do it, I really don't see why you should care..
Most people who work with feral cats, try to put them into barn homes instead where they are fed and can work as mousers.. Oftentimes, there is no way to get rid of the food source that attracted the cats in the first place, but, the cats can be neutered and re-released.. No new cats are added! Just the original altered cats are captured, altered and returned to the same location. That way the colony slowly dies off. Are you suggesting not altering the cats? Gee, that'd work well. There's very few animal control or government agencies that do anything with cats. So, the ferals would just keep reproducing without volunteers out there gathering and altering them. If they take the time to catch them, don't you think that should give them some sort of say in how they deal with them? The idea is that the dominant cats already there will continue to chase off newcomers and the already altered remaining ones won't be able to add to the population.
It's not like people are intentionally creating more feral cats. The whole point is to eventually eliminate feral cats.
Why don't you go over to Africa and bring some food? You seem to think you should be able to dictate how others choose to volunteer, what do you do that is so special?
My bet is nothing, like most everyone that complains about people that work with animals. Do you think there's some sort of Volunteer Fairy that drops these people from the sky? That there's only a select few who can volunteer and somehow you should dictate their actions?
Point of the matter is, everyone is good at something else. I'm not good with kids, I've tried, it doesn't work. The elderly react negatively to me when I've tried to volunteer at nursing homes. I am good with animals though. I have been since I was a small child.. Thus, I work with animals..
If you're so good with people, why don't you work with them instead of telling people that are already working hard to fix their own little corner of the world how they should do it..

The only reason ferals survive, is they find a replenishing food source. That could be a restaurant dumpster, or just an individual that feeds their pets outside.. Keeping the colony in place and altered keeps that food source unavailable for other cats. Maybe they'll be able to find another food source, or, they'll probably just get killed by dogs, cars or starvation..

Answer 3

Feral cats are a product of people thinking that cats are safe being outdoor animals. They are not fixed, keep breeding, spread disease amongst each other, and live forever as wild animals. They run away from home, wander away, or are released. Army bases are notorious for having feral cat populations because when they move on, they release the cat into the open instead of taking it to a shelter or giving it away. I think that caring for feral cat populations is the "animal lovers" way of cleaning up the mess that other people create. All of us animal lovers do it- we rescue, adopt from shelters, volunteer, etc just to help clean up the mess that breeders and irresponsible owners make with their intact animals breeding out of control.

I for one, think that feral cat populations are irritating because of my aforementioned reasons, but at the same time, they are incapable of living indoors with people after they have been wild for so long. They end up as roadkill, food for other animals, or euthanized anyway. The idea behind the spay-release programs is that eventually, there won't be anyone else breeding, and the cats will die off and the group will diminish. Most of those programs are volunteer based anyway, so there is nearly no money going into these programs anyway. In vet school, they are used as practice for vet students to spay/neuter. They get it done for free, and the students get practice- everyone wins. I dont think the neuter programs have anything to do with "lesser generations" taking their place. It's all about reproduction. I don't know where you get the idea that millions are being spent on this. The programs I am aware of are all volunteer-based, and if anything, go off of donations. Donations are not mandatory. We can give as much as we wish. TAXES are mandatory, and there is where the millions are going, to feed the welfare moms who should be neutered along with the cats and not bring any more kids into the world that are costing us money in the form of taxes.

Answer 4

I wasn't aware that this was being done. Every place I have lived, feral cats are either ignored or captured and euthanized.

I love animals, but do agree that some of our attitudes toward them have become extreme to the point of making no sense.

But that seems to be the nature of mankind. We go from one extreme to the other before reaching a point of reason.

When I was a child, stray cats and dogs were routinely shot by those who didn't want them on their property. This was an accepted practice. Now, people who shoot strays are jailed for animal cruelty.

There was a time that an old dog in extreme pain would have been quickly euthanized. Just recently, I had to beg a veterinarian to put my elderly Pom down after he'd spent an entire weekend screaming in pain. I'd spent years trying different medications to relieve his pain, and none were effective any longer, yet the vet wanted to try one more, expensive, treatment. I had promised Sam that he would never suffer pain again, yet the vet was unwilling to provide that end.

I don't think it's sick to care about animals. It does show our humanity to treat animals humanely, yet I don't see how returning sterilized feral cats to the wild could be considered logical, much less humane.

Answer 5

Hello,

I do understand where you are coming from here and I belive there is no right are wrong answers to your question as it is opinion based. I agree with you on the part that people are more important than animals and we should take care of them before animals.
But i disagree with you on the fact that it is wrong for a cat to hunt and kill. Its all part of the eco-system and the food chain. There are animals that hunt cats to such a the fox. Its just the way it goes.

But you also have to remember that people are not going to eat cat food so it is a waste of money not buying and using the resources we already have as the money can be going to pay taxes and taxes pay for alot of things like protecting our people.

I hope that my opinion was of some use to you one way or another and thank you for sharing your opinion with us.

Feel free to email me with any questions at any time, ill be happy to help.

Kindest regards,
Amanda.

Answer 6

I feel I answered this already...
more song birds are killed by human activity than by cats

and heck many are killed by other birds who are not native (eg Starlings)

people who are starving or poor can decide if they are going to have more kids or not.. therefore humans take up their own responsiblity for their actions...

our priorities should be rounding up all the poor people and sterilizing and releasing them so that we dont have to worry about feeding them too...

I personally had my tubes tied after 1 kid

feral cats do control unwanted species like mice and rats and are important in our enviornment.. dont

and speaking of introduced species.... humans were originally from Africa....

while there were native cats in North America

Answer 7

Why are we spending billions to wage "war" in Iraq? Why are we spending billions on our "war on drugs"? If drugs were legalised and taxed no American citizen would have to live in poverty, be homeless, or go without medical care.

The money spent on feral cats usually comes right out of the pockets (after taxes) of people who care about animals. One of the great shames of our wonderful lives here in the US is that over 5 million companion animals (mostly cats and dogs) are euthanized in shelters across our country every year. It is only to our credit that that number has been reduced from 15 million to 5 and only because people have given money from their personal income to support measures for sterilization, housing and feeding of unwanted animals.

Answer 8

Why are we taking care of ferals? Because unlike your next sentence, a lot of people DO care about other people and about the animals they are in contact with.

The measure of a society is very plain in how they treat their animals---by your measure we should let them starve or be in agony? I don't want to live in your world. I am changing the world in my area here by being far more empathic to suffering than you are, and I act on it to help others.

Answer 9

Your opinion isn't supported by the facts. Research has indicated that TNR is the most effective way to eliminate feral cat populations. But, obviously it makes you happy to believe whatever nonsense you want. Enjoy.