Effort underway to reduce feral cat population

Effort underway to reduce feral cat population
Mount Shasta Herald, California - September 21, 2006
By Sibyl Walski

The Siskiyou Trap, Alter and Release Program offered a workshop in trapping feral cats for neutering in Lake Shastina and almost no one responded.

Barbara Lovelace, founder/ treasurer of the STAR program stresses the significance of the feral cat problem.

“We trapped and altered 429 cats in this county in the last year and a half,” Lovelace said. “More than 200 were from Lake Shastina. We also managed to get 105 kittens adopted out.”

In July 2006, 12 cats were neutered and 13 adopted, according to members. Six remained available for adoption in four foster homes at the time of the workshop two weeks ago. A member of the group sits outside Ray's Food Place in Mount Shasta every Tuesday with adoptable cats and kittens.

Members also manage four colonies in Mount Shasta by providing food, water and shelter on a daily basis.

“We are working in the Lake Shastina area but need the residents to tell us where the colonies are,” added Susan Haight, secretary and grant writer for the group. “If we can show numbers, we can get grants (to cover the costs).”

Lovelace said STAR began in 2004 as the TAR program under the umbrella of the Siskiyou Humane Society. The feral cat neutering program became so large that the Humane Society decided to focus its spay/neuter program on domestic cats that came through the shelter. In May of this year STAR became its own California nonprofit organization.

For now, they subsist on donations and fundraisers such as yard sales to raise the money they need for food, shelter and neutering services. Much of their operating funds come out of members' own pockets. A fundraising dinner is planned for early in December.

The group works with a veterinarian who comes up once a month from the Simi Valley in southern California only to do feral spay/neuters. One month is devoted to cats from the north county and the next month is for south county captures.

He charges the organization only for the surgery packs and vaccinations. There is no cost to the caregiver.

Why is this a better solution?

As Lovelace states in a letter to the editor in this week's paper, “trap, neuter, return” is a humane method for reducing feral cat populations. “Once you've stopped the breeding, you've stopped the problem.”

Managing a feral colony is intended to be a proposition with diminishing returns. The animals are fed once a day and provided with water and shelter, but the animals do not reproduce and colony members will die out completely years earlier than domestic cats.

The veterinarian who does the surgeries for the group informed Lovelace that statistics show the average life of a feral cat is only two to five years. Predators, the elements and passing cars will all take their toll. In the meantime, their basic needs are met.

How to get the service

The caregiver is usually the one that contacts STAR. The group then provides humane traps and instructions on how to trap the animals. Members will assist in the trapping if the caretaker is elderly or physically disabled.

The caregiver then brings the trapped cat in the cage to the clinic, fills out a form and picks up the animal to return to the colony after the surgery.

The cat is checked thoroughly for illness, given a rabies shot and treated with a dose of a drug that kills intestinal parasites, heartworm, fleas, ticks and ear mites. Sick cats are given a hefty dose of an antibiotic.

The right ear of adults is “tipped” (e.g. the tip is removed). “This is the universal way to indicate that the cat is part of a managed colony and has been neutered,” said Lovelace.

Tamable kittens are not “tipped” and are taken to Mount Shasta Animal Hospital for neutering.

The caretaker holds the males for 24 hours before releasing them back to their environment. Females are held 3 to 4 days.

For further information about the services offered, volunteering with the group, donations, and/or the fundraiser, interested parties can call:

-- Pat Killingsworth (the group's president): 938-4913;

-- Susan Haight (secretary): 938-4885, or

-- Barbara Lovelace (treasurer): 926-6388.