Does the Humane Society Help the Ferral Cat Issue?

Actually I already know the answer to this question it would be no, at least in my area it is. When responsible individuals such as my family try to do the right thing and have these cats spay or neutered one place we check into for help is the Humane Society. They do have cut rates on having this procedure done. The problem though they make it clear they have a waiting list that goes on for two to three months. Do they realize just how many cats can be born in this time? In our case we took the cats that we grew to love to the Vet to have spaying done. Now we have a service in our neighborhood that is trapping the ferral cats to spay or neuter them. Which is helping out our neighbors who have been having the same issue we have with the cat population. I have a feeling that some years back a ferral community of cats decided this was a good neighborhood to settle in and now all the cats that have been born among them have settle in. Hey we love the cats its jsut that this can get out of control. One of our neighbors it turns out had 21 cats hanging out in their back yard due to the amount of kittens being born over this time.

 

I hear you about the Human Society and there lack of immediate, let alone inexpensive service to help with the pet population. It was such a big disappointment, the first time we found this out. We thought, for sure, they would be of greater assistance. Especially, since we adopted our Herman from the Human Society and she had already had this service done, plus a chip in her in case she ever got lost.

Oh, wow. 21 cats is a lot of cats. I love cats, but this just seems like a bit of a scary and sad situation. I am wondering, what she did with all these cats settling into her yard? Did she call animal control or does she feed them? Either way, I think, it would cause me a lot of stress! Speaking of picking up and spaying feral cats, we talked about this issue a few weeks ago in another thread. I think, it is good service to provide, but what do they do with the cats afterwards? Put them up for adoption?

 

I've heard only negative things about them, but I guess isn't easy to neuter all those cats. Maybe if they can't do it themselves, they should probably share the task with other organizations. I've see that happen where I live and has showed great results. They should probably do that, I bet they could cut the waitng time in half.

By the way, OP, did you find your two cats? It was those guys who caught them to neuter them?? I hope that is the case,

 

Well here in Maui it seems that our humane society is trying to help with the feral cat populations. I found a couple links that show this. One article says that they are launching a cat sterilization effort and planning on spaying and neutering hundred of cats a month. But I know that they have already been helping with this issue. The second link is to a page for Feral Cats Maui. They work with the humane society to deal with the feral cats. They call it Trap-Neuter-Return. Where they trap the cats, neuter them, then return them to where they trapped them. This program has been going on for a few years at least.

http://www.kitv.com/news/maui-humane-society-to-launch-cats-sterilization-effort/32385010

http://feralcatsmaui.org/?page_id=4

This happened to my parents recently as well. They saw a stray cat and fed it, turns out that cat was pregnant. So they cat decided that it was a good place to stay and have her kittens. Then those kittens had kittens, and so on. I don't know exactly how many cats there were in total, but it got crazy. My dad ended up taking them to areas where he knows they will be trapped and taken to be sterilized. It took a few months to get them all, and some ended up finding their way back, but there yard is finally clear of the stray cats. We also gave some of the cats to people who wanted them. Some of the cats had become very human friendly, but not all of them. Now that the stray cats are all gone, my parents cats are finally behaving normally. Their cats were definitely stressed having all those strays around.

Oh and our Humane Society has no problems with spaying and neutering pets. There is a fee (not too expensive) and you have to make an appointment, but they don't turn anyone away. The humane society also will tattoo the ears of the pets after the procedure, in case they are ever lost you can call them with the tattoo number and they will keep in eye out. They do this to all pets that get sterilized through them.

Wow that ended up being a long reply!

 

It's a really big NO around here. They'll pick up stray dogs but they will flat out tell you they won't come out for a stray cat. In the particular area I'm in there are a lot of farmers who put out a big bowl of cat food and just have a bunch of stray cats living in their barns. As a matter of fact I have lost a few cats to the lady down the road. She doesn't have a farm, just a building and a lot of land to keep her cats. I had 2 cats a while back, Boo and Cally. They wouldn't let anyone but me near them, but I was the one who fed them and annoyed them until they let me pet them lol. They were inseparable. But they left my house to go to Ms Eva's. Before that, we lost a huge black cat named Shadow to her. It's ok, though, because she loves all her cats. They are pretty much her only family.

 

Another "no" vote for here. Long waiting lists for still relatively expensive procedures and its a mess trying to get through on the phone. I feel like if they can't handle doing it themselves, they should maybe try to have contracts with local vets who will do it. I'm sure those vets would love the publicity and advertising that comes with helping to control the overpopulation of pets, and more and more families would be able to do the right thing with theirs.