Group offers spay/neuter services for feral cats

01:44 PM PDT on Tuesday, July 13, 2004

By RAY LANE / KING 5 News

KING A typical spay/neuter surgery performed at one of the clinics costs about $26 per cat.

SEATTLE - If you have pets, veterinarians hope you've already had them spayed or neutered. But what happens to feral cats, the cats that don't necessarily have a home and wander around neighborhoods?

A small clinic in North Seattle aims to help all those cats that, for the most part, are considered feral, spending most their lives outside, roaming around, having or making babies.

"If we don't alter them, those cats reproduce. So what we do is offer that option, that if you believe euthanasia is not the solution, we'll alter the cats," said veterinarian Christina Wilford.

The backbone of the Feral Cat Spay/Neuter Project is made up of volunteers and donations. Both can often be in short supply.

But they believe in what they're doing, believing the best way to control an overpopulation of animals is to alter them.

"These cats don't have access to surgery if people have to pay. There are individuals feeding 20 to 30. There's no way they can afford surgery for that," said Wilford.

"Slinky" from Port Orchard is a 10-pound tomcat that became the 10,000th cat that the group has spayed or neutered in the past seven years.

Who knows how many offspring he has, but it is known where many of these kittens and cats are going next - right back where they came from.

"Many of them are going to go back into whatever situation they came from. Sometimes that's good, sometimes that's not so good, in that they don't have loving homes and can't come in every night," said project executive director, Lea Lucky.

Will the problem of pet overpopulation ever end?

"It's only going to end if all the public starts to spay and neuter their pets really," said Lucky.

Q&A from the Feral Cat Spay/Neuter Project

Q: What is a feral cat?

A: Feral cats are the 'wild' offspring of domestic cats and are primarily the result of pet owners' abandonment or failure to spay and neuter their animals, allowing them to breed uncontrolled. Feral cat 'colonies' can be found behind shopping areas or businesses, in alleys, parks, abandoned buildings, and rural areas. They are elusive and do not trust humans.

Q: Where do feral cats come from?

A: Many people erroneously believe that cats can fend for themselves. Cat owners often abandon their cats when they move or simply no longer want the responsibility of pet ownership. Such cats survive only if they find food, shelter, and avoid dangers such as injury from cars, dogs, other cats, or abusive humans. They are rarely spayed or neutered, and their offspring are raised without human contact. Within a few years, one or two cats can produce a colony of twenty or more.

Q: What is a feral cat colony?

A: When several feral cats group together in an alley, the corner of a parking lot, or a grassy area of a college campus, they form a feral colony. A feral colony is a social group of cats who avoid human contact, and breed with each other to create a growing population of homeless cats.

Q: Who is a caretaker?

A: A caretaker is anyone who puts out food for feral cats, making their lives a little easier. Ferals quickly come to rely on the provider of a regularly scheduled, nutritious meal. Some caretakers feed an entire colony of feral cats, and there are a number of organizations which provide for the care of ferals in a limited area, such as a college campus or a beachfront boardwalk.

Q: What is the most important responsibility of any caretaker?

A: Spay or neuter. A female cat can, and does, have litters only three to four months apart. Her kittens are themselves able to have litters when they are only five months old. Within five years, a single cat can be responsible for the births of thousands of homeless kittens, doomed to the same life on the streets as their mother. Many people are happy to provide a stray cat with food occasionally, but most do not bother to take the next step of making sure that the cat doesn't perpetuate the pet overpopulation crisis.

Q: What is the best thing I can do for a feral cat?

A: Trap the cat in a humane trap, and take it to be spayed or neutered. By spaying or neutering a feral cat, you are ending the breeding cycle and preventing more cats from being born into the painful predicament of being unwanted and uncared for. In addition, spaying a female cat allows her to live without the drain of constant pregnancy and motherhood. Neutering a male cat ends unpopular behavior such as urine-spraying, roaming of the neighborhood, and noisy fighting for territory with other unneutered toms. Also, the surgery causes tomcats, and in my experience female cats, to calm down and be more amenable to staying near the caretaker's food bowl and sometimes being tamed.