A stray cat is a lost or abandoned pet. A feral cat is the offspring of lost or abandoned pet cats or other feral cats who are not spayed or neutered.
Stray cats are used to being in contact with people and are tame (although may exhibit some fear), but feral cats are not accustomed to contact with people and are typically too fearful and wild to be handled.
Whereas stray cats may be reunited with their families or adopted into new homes, feral cats do not easily adapt or may never adapt to living as pets in close contact with people.
Feral cat females can reproduce two to three times a year, and their kittens, if they survive, will become feral without early contact with people. In order to socialize a kitten, they must be handled at a young age – ideally prior to five weeks old. With each passing week, it is less likely they can be properly socialized and become a family pet.
Feral cats typically live with a group of related cats known as a colony. The colony occupies and defends a specific territory where food (a restaurant dumpster, a person who feeds them) and shelter (beneath a porch, in an abandoned building) are available.
Feral cats are always struggling to find food and shelter. Many don’t survive. If they do survive, their lives aren’t easy without human caretakers.
Females may become pregnant as young as 4 to 5 months of age and may have 2 to 3 litters a year. Being pregnant so young and so often, and having and nursing kittens is even more stressful on female cats who are struggling to survive. More than half of the kittens are likely to die.
Males who roam and fight to find mates and defend their territories may be injured and transmit diseases to one another through bite wounds.
There are many reasons why feral cat problems are rarely solved by efforts to trap and remove them.
Feral cats live at a certain location because the habitat is suitable for their survival and offers food and shelter. If the cats in any one colony are removed, feral cats from surrounding colonies move in to take advantage of the newly vacated habitat and start the cycle of reproduction and nuisance behavior anew.
In addition, if all the cats in a colony are not trapped, then the ones left behind tend to have more kittens that survive to adulthood due to a lack of competition for resources until the colony reaches its former population level.
Other factors which usually make removing feral cats ineffective include:
Trap and remove will only result in a temporary reduction in the number of feral cats in a given area.
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.
Their malnourished condition will make them more susceptible to parasitic infestations, such as fleas, which they will spread into workplaces, garages, homes, etc., within their territory.
The cats will also continue to reproduce despite the effort to “starve them out,” resulting in the visible deaths of many kittens.
As a result, feeding bans, if enforced, tend to make the situation much worse, instead of improving it.
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.
Many people see a homeless cat and start feeding the cat even though many communities have feeding bans meant to discourage feeding. Ideally, the person quickly does more to help the homeless cat:
Trap, Neuter, Return (TNR) is a strategy for improving the lives of feral cats and reducing their numbers. At a minimum, identified feral cats are spayed or neutered so they can no longer reproduce, and are vaccinated against rabies. Dedicated caretakers feed and provide shelter for TNRed cats, monitor them for sickness and release them, if feral, or give them up for adoption, if tame.
Animal shelters already care and try to find homes for thousands of lost, injured, abandoned, and relinquished pet cats. Many do not have the resources to proactively trap and remove thousands of feral cats.
Animal shelters that receive complaint calls or calls of concern from the public may attempt to humanely trap and remove feral cats. The Humane Society of Morocco can provide information to citizens interested in humanely trapping feral cats.
Feral cats brought to the shelter, especially those who cannot be identified as members of a known TNRed colony, are likely to be euthanized right away or after a mandatory holding period. It is difficult to safely care for a feral cat in a typical shelter cage, and it is very stressful for a feral cat.
Some people feel sorry for feral cats because of their difficult and dangerous life. Others are annoyed by the cats’ behaviors and want the cats removed. But many people don’t feel that the cats should be euthanized. Even if there were enough people and money to remove and euthanize feral cats, 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.
The alternative is Trap, Neuter, Return. When feral cats are TNRed, their health improves because they no longer have kittens and fight over mates, and nuisance behaviors are greatly reduced or eliminated. The colony’s dedicated caretaker provides food, water, and shelter watches over the health of the cats, and removes any newcomers for TNR (if feral) or adoption (if tame).
TNR improves the quality of life for existing colonies, prevents the birth of more cats, and reduces the number of cats over time. Additionally, many groups that provide resources for TNR have calculated that the costs associated with TNR are considerably less than those associated with the removal, shelter care, and euthanasia of feral cats.
Helping feral cats can be very rewarding. There are many options for you to be involved.
If there is a colony of feral cats in your area that does not have a caretaker, you can become their caretaker. Feral cat caretakers practice Trap, Neuter, Return, feed, provide shelter, and monitor the cats for any problems.
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