Читать книгу Cats For Dummies - Gina Spadafori - Страница 55

IN THIS CHAPTER

Defining the problem

Overcoming objections to feral cats

Doing your part to solve the problem

Explaining the trap, neuter, and release approach

If you’ve ever put a saucer of milk out for a hard-luck kitty, or if you’re spending your lunch hour sharing sandwiches with the free-roaming cats near your office, this is the chapter for you. And we know you’re not alone: There are millions of cats in the United States who live a wild life — they’re typically called feral cats, or just ferals — and lots of people out there are helping them to survive.

Perhaps because the cat of all our animal companions chose their own path to domestication, it’s only natural that many cats should live still in the shadowed zone between tame and wild. In the alleyways of our largest cities, the parks of our ubiquitous suburbs, and the rural spaces in between, millions of cats spend their lives living just out of our reach.

The wild life is not an easy one, to be sure. Domestic cats living a wild life breed constantly, with each young mother producing two or even three litters a year. Of those kittens, relatively few may live to maturity. Those cats who do live to see their first or second birthdays struggle to live much beyond them. Starvation, disease, predators, and traffic take a heavy toll.

There are plenty of controversies around the idea of free-range cats, but we feel there are ways to mitigate many of the issues without mass slaughter. As such, we’re going to use a newer term for these cats that truly reflects their lives on the margins of human existence. Advocates for humane treatment of these cats call them community cats, and we’re choosing to do so, as well.

Cats become free-ranging when people don’t care for them, or don’t care about what happens to them. For example, people move and leave their cats behind. Or people let their cats breed and don’t pay attention to the fate of the kittens. Or people figure that their cat can do just fine on his own, and they drop the hapless kitty along a country road or in a city park because they don’t want the responsibility of caring for him anymore.

On top of everything else, these cats must contend with people who believe them to be pests and who therefore decide that the best way to deal with them is to exterminate them. Until recently, these beliefs were nearly universal. Communities dealt with the problems caused by community cats — real or imagined — by trapping and killing them.

More than a few cat lovers knew there just had to be a better way to deal with these homeless cats. These cat lovers were determined to find a better way and they did. In a little more than a decade, the future has brightened considerably, with programs designed both to lessen the numbers of cats on the street and to help the cats who remain live more comfortably.

One person can make a difference. Progressive thinking — and action, in an increasing number of communities — is decreasing the population of free-ranging cats and helping those who remain to live healthier lives while minimizing the potential for conflict and controversy.