Feral Cats – Could You Find Homes For 420,000 Kittens?

Feral cat populations explode, especially if they are left un-neutered.

This is the number of kittens a pair of breeding cats, having two litters per year, could have in seven years. And imagine this number of feral cats living in your neighborhood, fighting over food and fighting each other. Cats have increased in popularity as pets because of their value as companions and this, coupled with their ease of care, make them ideal pets in today’s busy society. Cats do not need to be walked for exercise or taken to ‘training’ classes, they do not make a lot of noise or take up much room. There is no real need for a cat to be taken outdoors once it has been trained to use the litter box. And in busy cities, there are too many cars and dangers for the average house cat to deal with safely.

• • It is estimated that there are over 60 million households in the USA that have cats and over 90 million cats. This number does not include wild or feral cats. An estimate of cats born each day could be over 85,000. These numbers are from 2002 so are conservative for today’s figures. This has the potential to be a huge feral cat problem.

• • Los Angeles taxpayers alone spend nearly $10 million per year to house, feed, kill and dispose of tens of thousands of perfectly healthy but unwanted pets every year. More than 2,000,000 feral cats are homeless on L. A. streets.

• • The cost to ordinary Americans who fail to spay or neuter their cats, allowing them to breed uncontrolled, is growing astronomically each and every year.

• • Remember, one un-neutered male cat can impregnate many female cats. It is distressing for me to know that healthy, lovable kittens and cats are legally euthanized each day. It distresses me even more to know that people, every day, are disposing of kittens and cats by drowning them or throwing them out of moving cars or just leaving them in the bush somewhere. Not only do these cats become wild and often diseased, they prey on small animals and birds for food, destroying some native habitats.

Contrary to popular belief, it is not necessary to let your female cat have a litter of kittens before having her spayed. A kitten can get pregnant at approximately 4 months. One suggestion is to have all kittens neutered at 8 to 12 weeks so pet shops will only be able to sell neutered kittens and this will help reduce the problem of growing numbers of feral cats. Only licensed breeders would be able to have un-neutered cats.

The surgery, performed under anaesthesia, is not painful, does not have a long recovery, and prevents certain deadly diseases. Animals that are spayed or neutered are healthier, live longer, want to stray less and get into less fights.

It is a fallacy that male kittens ‘don’t need neutering’ as they ‘don’t have kittens’. As in the human world, one male cat can make many female cats pregnant.

In our small rural town, three ladies got together to tackle the problem of unwanted kittens. They fund raised in any way they could and arranged that anyone could have their kitten spayed or neutered for free through the group. Our vet undertook the operations at a minimal cost to the group and the fund raising paid for everything. In a few years over 400 kittens were sterilized at no cost to their owners, preventing a feral cat problem developing which in turn helped save many small animals and birds in our native bush.

You don’t want to be adding to the feral cat population where you live and once neutered, there won’t be tears from young family members when their ‘beloved kitten’ has to go to a new home.

I have noticed a number of ‘Trap, Neuter, Return Programs’ on the web. These programs do exactly what their name suggests and has been proven to greatly reduce the feral cat problem in their particular area. However, these programs cost money and it is usually the taxpayer who foots the bill. Your cat is like a member of your family and you want the best for it. You need to become a responsible cat owner and have your cat neutered or spayed, otherwise you will be adding to the ever growing and increasingly expensive problem of feral cats.

Why not invest in *Veterinary Secrets Revealed, which has been written by a vet who has practiced Veterinary Medicine for over a decade. I’m sure it will soon become a valuable resource that could save you a good deal of money. And if your pet is healthy and well looked after, hopefully it won’t leave home and add to the feral cat problem.

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