Animal protection worker explains how feral cat colonies start and how to deal with the issue

HOWLEY — Many communities throughout Canada deal with feral cat colonies, some made up of as few as 10 cats, while others grow to hold more than 200.

An average cat colony, according to Liz White, director of Animal Alliances Canada, has between 50-75 cats, similar to the size of a colony that is currently in Howley.

White said the colonies come about for a variety of reasons, but it is based largely on a lack of education about what it is to be a responsible pet owner.

“Often what happens is somebody has a cat that they don’t bother to fix,” she said.

“Either the cat goes out and gets lost or the people move away and leave the cat behind and all of a sudden the cat is out in the environment trying to fend for itself.”

While a cat no longer in a home may not be feral, or wild, if it mates with a feral cat, the kittens will most likely be feral.

She said it is difficult to tame feral cats and the kittens need to captured and domesticated within two to three months or they will likely remain feral.

“A colony grows. The mother may have five or six kittens, three of them may survive, one male two female, you can see what the problem is, cats can reproduce within six months of being born,” said White.

White said the survival of the colony depends on the environment’s climate as well as how much support the cats receive from feeders in the area.

White said once a cat colony is discovered, the question is what to do about it.

“What seems to be the forward thinking approaches to these problems now is to do a trap, vaccinate, sterilize and release program,” she said.

She said Toronto now has a clinic which sterilizes feral cats free of charge, and has developed an entire program where they develop caregivers for the colony.

She said once the animals are sterilized, their ears are tipped to identify them from the other feral cats that must be captured and sterilized.

“Someone cares for them for a few days and back out into the environment they go. They’re not truly wild. They’re domestic, but they are wild in the sense that they are simply too afraid to be around people and can’t be in homes, and there really isn’t an option than to put them back out,” said White.

White said colonies that started off with 200 cats three years ago are at a population of about 10. Due to harsh living conditions, a feral cat’s average lifespan is about two years.

She said in some cases, the animals are simply rounded up and shot, gassed or poisoned all of which are inhumane methods to deal with the problem.

White said dogs used to be in serious trouble throughout the country and now, largely because of some stringent bylaws which forces responsible pet ownership, the numbers of dogs that end up in shelters and pounds is much smaller than it once was.

“The crisis is with cats,” she said.

“Cats, in peoples’ minds, are different. You can leave them outside. You don’t really need to worry about them. Cats can fend for themselves. There seems to be a discarding mentality, or a not so vigilant mentality, about cats.”

White said she understands municipalities might not have the funds budgeted to spay or neuter problem animals, let alone capture them and take them to the vet for “proper” euthanasia.

“The point is that theses animals deserve proper treatment,” said White.

“The town is there to deliver service to all kinds of entities that live in its community and there is a colony of animals that deserves a proper treatment.”

She said if there is a colony that people are feeding, once the cats are suddenly eliminated, there will be a new colony within a few years.

“People are dumping their animals. They did not drop out of the ether. At some point, they were attached to somebody who they’re no longer attached to for whatever reason and the municipality has to acknowledge that and begin to figure out how to deal with the situation.”