Feral Cats

Dear friends and supporters of The Anti-Cruelty Society,
 
The month of April is the time that we raise awareness about feral cats and the benefits of raising your cat as an indoor cat. As a part of our Meet Us Again campaign I will discuss where we stand on the topic of feral cats and what services we are providing to help reduce their population.
 
It is estimated that there are about 800,000 feral cats in Cook County and up to 60 million feral cats nationwide. What to do about feral cats is a controversial subject. Discussions about this issue usually become very emotional. On one end of the spectrum of opinions are people who strongly believe that all feral cats should be eliminated by whatever means available. As you can imagine, this is a highly unpopular belief among most cat lovers. At the other end there are those that believe feral cats have every right to live “free” with no intervention. Most people believe that something needs to be done about the large feral cat population but want to keep the cats alive. Currently, there is little scientific data to objectively evaluate various  approaches to reducing  the  feral  population and in reality,  there  is no  one solution that will work  in every community.
 
In Nov. 2007, a Cook County ordinance took effect that allows the establishment of managed feral cat colonies if they are registered with a department approved sponsor.
 
The Anti-Cruelty Society encourages and supports actions to minimize the problem of free-roaming abandoned and feral cats. We provide traps to facilitate feral cat colony management. Since we started providing free sterilization for feral cats six years ago, we have conducted 4,640 surgeries. And of course, prevention is critical – public education that reduces the number of cats abandoned or allowed outside unsupervised and the number of kittens being born is an essential component.
 
If you live in a community where there are feral cats, encourage the cat caretaker to get their felines spayed and neutered and educate them about our services. Together we can build a community of caring by helping pets and educating people.
 

Sincerely,
 
Robyn Barbiers, D.V.M.
President