Feral cats. Ok. I really don’t understand...

I enjoy animals. But I don't understand some things sometimes, and would like a little help getting my head in the right gear to be supportive.  Sometimes people seem to be overly attached to them. 
 

I'm working at a business which has had a pretty significant issue with feral cats. Dozens of them. This is not a rural area with lots of field mice, etc. It's a car dealership in a city. 
 

The cats are sickly. They live in the sewer.  They have eye infections, and are malnourished. 
 

Several of the ladies who work here have taken to caring for the cats. They feed them, and try to catch them and get them veterinary attention when needed. They have also made efforts to get them fixed. I applaud the desire, but really am not sure it is a good idea. 
 

It's gotten to the point where dozens of cats come running when  one lady's car shows up. They know she will feed them. 
 

I know people love cute little kittens and kitty cats, but honestly this almost seems a little cruel. The cats no longer know how to hunt or feed themselves. Apparently the only thing they can do is breed, pass disease, and wait for someone to feed them. 
 

To me, this is the worst form of "helping". It is self-serving... it makes some people feel good about themselves while making the cats dependent and incapable of living as cats.  What happens when these women get a new job?

So, help me out. Am I being a callous SOB?  Do I need to take a few self-help classes in caring for animals?  Help me see this differently (if appropriate). 
 

For the record, I have said not a single negative word to the ladies. Nothing but smiles and encouraging words. But I am uncomfortable when I see people treat animals like this. 

I'd defer to Floating Doc when he chimes in, but I would not be worried about the cats becoming incapable of hunting. They still know how and they still will. They probably still do. 

As for what you should do with them? Trap and fix them. All of them that you can. That is what we do in our neighborhood. Otherwise, (and this is probably the better solution), I'd try to euthanize them somehow. Maybe via introduction of coyote and fox. 

In reply to mtn (Forum Supporter) :

They've been trapping and fixing them. But they can't catch them all. And 1 pregnant cat can have a litter of a dozen kittens. 
 

I'm with you on the euthanizing.  I'm pretty sure lots of people would consider me a cruel and evil kitten hater for saying that. 

In reply to mtn (Forum Supporter) :

Hard to introduce a coyote to an urban car dealership. 

In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :

Hard but not impossible. 

Fox, as a general rule won't eat cat. They are too well defended and almost the same size. 

Pretty sure Beaufort has coyote. The Charleston area is eat up with them. But Beaufort also has a boat load of mice which will keep the cats and most predators fed. 

Best thing to do is trap, fix, clip the ear, and dump them back where they were. That will keep new unfixed cats from moving in and the ear clip identifies fixed cats. The ladies definitely need to stop feeding them. They are just exacerbating the problem. 

In reply to Toyman01 (Moderately Supportive Dude) :

I'm not in Beaufort any more. I'm in Columbus GA

You may want to head out there at night with a .22 and a lawn chair. Out of view of cameras, obviously. 

Or find some German Wire Haired Pointers. They'd take care of the problem too, and most are well trained to the point that the owners could make sure they don't run into traffic.

SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:

To me, this is the worst form of "helping". It is self-serving... it makes some people feel good about themselves while making the cats dependent and incapable of living as cats.  What happens when these women get a new job?

So TNR will eventually kill off the colony but you have to be unbelievably thorough to do it. Also there is no way she is feeding that many cats to the point that they are becoming domestic and cannot fend for themselves. A colony like that likely eats its entire weight in rats/mice/birds every month. Trust me they can still hunt.

Even my extreme Persian show cat could catch mice and he is the definition of domestic. Cats are little fluffy murder machines.  My Maine Coons can take down full sized rabbits and bigger prey and would do it just for fun if I let them outside. 

Seriously this fluff balls children still kill mice. 

We belong to a nature preserve close to our house that has strict rules (posted all over the place) against feeding ducks and geese. 

Still, there are people who come out and throw wonderbread in the ponds and the geese and ducks flock in. The geese get so used to people that they can actually become aggressive. 

I don't know what people are thinking. I think it's a loneliness factor, and also a caring/nurturing factor. They think they are caring and nurturing something that 'needs' them. They like both the feeling of being needed, and also feeling like they've made a difference. Even if the need is imagined. Perhaps you could help redirect this feeling into having them help children who actually do need care and food. Maybe there is a shelter who would accept brown bag breakfasts/lunches, and instead of feeding cats they could arrive 30 minutes early to work and make lunches for people instead of cats. 

The problem is, feeding 'wildlife' is also really easy and non-committal. 

Paul, try calling local animal shelters and see if they have a TNVR program or can recommend a local group that does. This stands for trap, neuter, vaccinate, release. The key thing with any cat colony is to get ALL the cats. It takes time and effort but it has to be done to stop the breeding.

Any litters have to be collected asap if there is any chance of the kittens being socialized with fosters. After 7-8 weeks they are already close to being too feral to socialize. They really need to be collected within 2-7 weeks. 

We donate to a local group (meownowpinellas) that only does cat colony TNVR. They work with local shelters to facilitate low-cost vet treatment and spay/neuter surgeries. A TNVR group in NYC has been really good at championing this fight. They have a Youtube channel with good info/stories.

Flatbush Cats

I have that same problem, and I also have a lady that comes and feeds them at night. I never catch her, but she leaves a mess of cans and stuff that then my guys have to clean up. 

We do have coyotes which I have caught on camera and seen myself a couple of times, we need more coyotes. 

Also, it doesnt get more developed than where I am at and we still have coyotes. 

In reply to hobiercr (FS) :

Those are great ideas, but I am definitely NOT gonna get involved in helping them neuter the cats. 
 

Im trying to manage my own response to the people, not facilitate the cat problem for them. 

In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :

I'm not saying you get involved in trapping the cats. A couple of phone calls will allow you to find out if there is a local group doing TNVR. They just need to be alerted of the feral pack and they will take it from there.

In my neighborhood cats are disappearing and their owners are screaming about the coyotes. 

SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to mtn (Forum Supporter) :

Hard to introduce a coyote to an urban car dealership. 

A buddy introduced a goose to the upstairs boys room in high school. He used a duffel bag. Do you have a duffel bag?

So my late teenage years, summer before moving off for college, my dad was newly remarried, he, my sister, and I moved into stepmom's place and began SIGNIFICANT renovations on dad's house on the farm.

The house was vacant for ~3 years while remodeling a section at a time as funds were available.

We always had barn cats, the clever scrappy ones stuck around, but we had a blue heeler (Australian cattle dog) who's favorite flavor was calico, and a pretty busy highway at the end of the driveway... 

The matriarch of the barn cats was a smart, people friendly, super good mouser, and ornery enough to keep the dogs in check, barn cat, I claimed as "mine," named Scrap.  Scrap lived to be 10+ years old, and had a whole bunch of kittens, that had a whole bunch of kittens, that had a whole bunch of kittens, that, well you get the point.

These were barn cats, not pets, some would tolerate being near people, but Scrap and maybe 1 out every 10 of her lineage would ever let you pet them.  They got a scoop of Walmart's Special Kitty dry food once a day while feeding the livestock, if one was obviously sick or injured it'd be taken care of, (no not necessarily like that) and they did occasionally get wormed and flea/tick treatment.  So they weren't exactly wild.

Then we moved out for the remodel.

The cat population exploded!  We're still not sure what happened, the blue heeler stayed at the farm, but while we were gone the cat population went from ~5 to north of 30.  These were not healthy cats, and fleas became a problem.  You ever had fleas, like you, you walk in the barn, look down and there's suddenly little "seeds" all over your legs, then you notice the "seeds" are moving?  You think chiggers itch, try fleas!  It was bad, most of the cat herd had some kind of respiratory issue, there were wheezy, inbreed, flea ridden, disease spreaders all over the place.

If there was ever a case for spay & neuter it was our farm.  We really let Bob Barker down.

I'll spare you the details, but we significantly reduced the population, humanely.

You get rid of all the cats and that gives other cats a chance to move into the territory. Replacing cats with coyotes is such a moronic idea I would hope it's a joke.

Getting them fixed and down to a manageable population is the only actual solution, even if that last part involves shooting the ones you can't catch.

In reply to Grizz :

My opinion (which is often unpopular) is that shooting them or letting them starve to death and be replaced by a smaller healthier population is more humane than feeding them. 
 

But I'm  trying to be open-minded. 

Actually if you take away their food supply they will move on. I had a neighbor who fed feral cats. Soon there were cats everywhere. Shortly after she moved out and the feeding stopped, the cats disappeared. If you shoot them but keep feeding them, more will come to replace the ones who died. 

Unless the replacements are also fixed you just end up with an endless cycle of breeding since people are dumb and feed them no matter what. With fixed you have a territory of cats that cannot continue on until the ones controlling it die off.

Shooting them is unpopular but cats are insanely destructive to the native wildlife that it's very much a viable option.

Snowdoggie said:

In my neighborhood cats are disappearing and their owners are screaming about the coyotes. 

Coyote home invasions are rare.  How would a properly cared-for housecat fall victim to coyotes unless some careless owner was letting their cat run wild outdoors to prey on helpless birds and other small animals? 

Apparently that sword cuts both ways.

Snowdoggie said:

In my neighborhood cats are disappearing and their owners are screaming about the coyotes. 

same here.. but our response is.. why is your cat outside at night...

We have a neighbor who is feeding feral cats too. Been chasing them out of our yard as we've had them kill birds and lizards. Thanks to the people who posted notes about TNVR programs - we'll look into that ourselves, as I figured that my wife wouldn't go for trying to build a triple-sized rat trap and baiting it with goldfish.

Fueled by Caffeine said:

Snowdoggie said:

In my neighborhood cats are disappearing and their owners are screaming about the coyotes. 

same here.. but our response is.. why is your cat outside at night...

They want the same solution. Why can't the Dallas Police go out and shoot all the coyotes. The city naturist said the population would just replace itself with more coming in from other places and more pups. The police didn't even want to consider a coyote hunt within the city limits with everything else going on.