Letter for Thursday, March 5, 2020

Many organizations have paused feral-cat programs

In response to the letter to the editor entitled “It costs too much to surrender feral cats:”

It is true that Kaua‘i has a feral-cat problem. This just goes to show that the trapping and killing of cats at the Kaua‘i Humane Society has been insufficient to manage this issue.

Animal-control facilities across the country have stopped taking in feral cats altogether because they recognize that doing so has been ineffective at controlling their numbers. Instead, they are promoting targeted surgical sterilization and return efforts, which has prevented the unnecessary killing of cats and has been more successful at reducing their population. Appropriate management of the cat population will result in less cats to predate on birds and spread toxoplasmosis.

Studies have shown that feral cats are no more unhealthy than any other wild carnivore of similar size, and to say that they are “fearful” and “aggressive” supports the fact that they should be considered “wild.” These are not pet cats, and to compare their health and behavior to a pet cat is inappropriate. Studies have also shown that 70% to 90% of a feral cat’s diet may be made up of rodents, which are abundant here in Hawai‘i. Rodents themselves are detrimental to Hawai‘i’s ecosystem and native species, particularly nesting birds, and removing cats as one of their top predators may result in a boom in the rodent population and an increase in the diseases that they carry (more than 40 of which are of public-health significance, according to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, including rat lungworm. Rodents are only one example of invasive species that are preyed upon by cats in Hawai‘i.

Spaying/neutering very often reduces the behaviors of feral cats that are considered undesirable, such as vocalizing, urine spraying and fighting. The Spay Pod on Kaua‘i offers spay/neuter services for cats for $60, which is less than the cost to have a cat killed at KHS. There is often funding available through the Kaua‘i Community Cat Project to cover the entire cost of surgery. For more information, please contact the Spay Pod by calling 650-2720 or emailing spaypod@kauaicats.org.

Note: The Spay Pod is not affiliated with the Kaua‘i Humane Society.

Katie Spaulding, DVM, MPH, Spay Pod, Kealia
Source: The Garden Island