‘No-kill’ yields no place for feral cats

[Alma]

They can be found prowling around downtown Athens, exploring the trash bins by Snelling or scurrying around North Campus behind several buildings.

As of July 2009, the Athens Area Humane Society transitioned into a no-kill shelter in order to prevent euthanizing savable animals for the convenience of space. With this transition came the agreement to not take in feral cats.

The Athens Area Humane Society is no longer able to accept feral cats into its shelter.

“We just don’t take in feral cats,” Crystal Evens, Executive Director of Athens Area Humane Society, said. “We put them through a temperament test first. It’s a test the vet tech performs to determine if the cat is aggressive towards people, if they know how to play, and if they’re defensive when people touch them.”

If a cat fails this test, the Humane Society deems it a feral cat. A feral cat, according to Christina Parr, founder of Cats on Campus, is “technically a cat who has at one point originated from someone’s stray cat. Some cats are born feral and some cats just end up feral. You can tell when you meet the cat because it’s going to run away from you, and if you approach it it can bite you.”

But some, like Amanda Rodriguez, owner of Pawtropolis, believes that the distinction between a stray cat and a feral cat can’t be made in just a few days with one test.

“I don’t think you can make that distinction right off the bat,” Rodriguez said. “We really need a few weeks to make the distinction because cats can learn to be sweet and cuddly, and they can learn to come up to humans.”

But this doesn’t mean that she doesn’t agree with no-kill policies. She gives kudos to the Athens Animal Control and their efforts to save feral cats.

“That’s fantastic if you go in that direction,” she said. “Obviously our dream is for everyone to go no-kill, but that’s impossible unless every family would have seven pets. Somebody there is doing something right, but it really depends on how hard the staff works and how many volunteers you have.”

Parr, who thinks the new development at the humane society is going pretty well, explains the background to the no-kill policy coming forward.

“The woman who was running it was kind of being overwhelmed by people bringing in so many feral cats, and she was just having to euthanize every cat,” Parr said. “And that obviously isn’t the best option. So, I think the main reason for her to want to be a no-kill shelter was because she didn’t want to be hurting the cats.”

In her opinion, the no-kill policy of the Athens Humane Society is doing fairly well.

“Sometimes no-kill shelters get bogged down, but they seem to have a high success rate. They give people alternatives,” she said.

One alternative is to take these feral cats to the Humane Society’s spay/neuter center, where they have a $35 feral cat package.

“More people are choosing to spay/neuter the cats instead, therefore sparing their lives,” Kelly Bettinger, Coordinator of Campus Cats, explained.

She personally believes that there should be multiple options on how to deal with feral cats.

“We do need a humane place to take ferals who cannot be helped in other ways,” Bettinger said. “One of the other options is known as TNR, trap, neuter, return, where cats are sterilized, vaccinated, eartipped for id, and returned to their home territory and fed daily. A third option would be a sanctuary for feral cats, such as Best Friends in Utah. It is something we are striving for, but will take far more funds than we currently have.”

By taking into account these options, Athens can slowly move towards a plan for feral cat management.

“AAHS made the choice that they did because a small handful of people were abusing the system, and instead of bringing in only ferals who had no one to take care of them, they actively trapped pet cats, stray cats and feral cats from perfectly safe situations and hauled them off to be killed because they cannot tolerate any living cats living outdoors,” she said. “These unnecessarily trapped cats were causing the shelter to have to euthanize many more cats than normal, including tame and pet animals.”

If a cat is seen on campus, Bettinger advises to look for the eartip that will let you know if it has been spayed or neutered. It can be hard to see if the cat is not too close, so she encourages people to e-mail her at feralcatcaregivers@yahoo.com.

“Feral cats are unlikely to allow people to approach them closely, so don’t stress them out by trying to get closer, and don’t attempt to corner, pick up or pet cats that you do not know,” she said.

http://www.redandblack.com/2010/02/0...or-feral-cats/