There’s a seeming contradiction in the mandate of organizations like Cowichan Cat Rescue and a recently formed group called Chemainus CATastrophe, which look out for the welfare of feral cats: on the one hand, they love these shy animals, feed them, get them to the vet when they are injured or sick and find foster homes for their kittens; on the other, their long-term goal is to humanely depopulate and eliminate the colonies where ferals congregate.
Dee Kinnee of CATastrophe said the life of a feral cat is often nasty, brutish and short, an existence foisted on them by humans, who for one reason or another have either not been responsible pet owners, or who have been outright callous, abandoning domestic cats to an outdoor life on the fringes of our communities.
“It’s pretty rough. A lot of cats die from starvation if a colony’s not managed, and that’s not a nice way to go. They have to scrabble for existence, and they’re terrified of humans, so they spend a lot of time in fear.” Add to that the possibility of disease, predation, and accelerated aging – feral cats live two to three years – and what emerges is a portrait of abuse for animals that have the imprint of domestication in their genes, but have been lost or outcast into back allies and vacant lots.
Continue reading “A fair strategy for dealing with feral cats”
