Why alternatives to TNR don't work
The proven approach to managing feral cat populations
Why can't the Humane Society rescue feral cats?
The HSOY already cares for and tires to find homes for many lost, injured, abandoned, and relinquished pet cats. Feral cats are not pets. It does not have the resources to proactively trap and remove thousands of feral cats.
Why don’t we euthanize all of them?
Even if there were enough people and money to remove and euthanize all the feral cats on one person’s property, other feral cats would move into the vacant territory to take advantage of the food source and shelter now made available. It's an endless cycle.
Why don’t we remove them?
Factors that make removing feral cats ineffective include
- Provided there is still food and shelter, new feral cats will fill the vacuum left behind
- The difficulty in catching all the cats in a colony; if all the cats in a colony are not trapped, then the ones left behind tend to reproduce quickly until the colony reaches its former population level
- The lack of animal control resources to accomplish this task
- The continued presence of unaltered domestic cats who can repopulate a vacant colony
Why don't feeding bans work to eliminate feral cats?
The logic behind bans against feeding feral cats is that if there is no food available, the cats will go away. This is not true. Feral cats are territorial animals who can survive for weeks without food and will not easily or quickly leave their territory to search for new food sources. Instead, they tend to encroach closer into human habitations as they grow hungrier and more desperate.
A second reason why feeding bans are rarely effective is that they are nearly impossible to enforce. Repeated experience has shown that people who care about the cats' welfare will go to great lengths, risking their homes, jobs and even their liberty, to feed starving animals. Someone determined to feed the cats will usually succeed without being detected, no matter the threatened penalties.