Sounds Good! ... Now What's a Feral Cat?

By Alicia Dorr in Miscellaneous on Jul 18, 2007 5:59PM

Did anybody hear Catrin Einhorn's story on Chicago Public Radio about the push for people to neuter feral cats in the city?

A Maryland-based nonprofit group called Alley Cat Allies dedicated to lowering outdoor and stray cat populations without killing them is targeting some Chicago neighborhoods. The group partnered with the Tree House Animal Foundation in Pilsen to raise awareness about their methods, which include Trap-Neuter-Return.

Basically, people can bring cats to certain organizations and shelters to get a stray cat fixed for a low cost or even for free. Because outdoor cats split most of their time between caterwauling and fornicating, many people, especially in poorer neighborhoods in urban areas, take matters into their own hands by killing the unwanted felines. Even when they are given to Animal Control they often have to be put down because they are too wild to be adopted.

We pretty much support this all the way. We have too many terrible memories of a certain member of our family putting stray cats together in a cage and then throwing them in the lake to mention, and we think that anything that avoids that kind of sick behavior is a plus. The overpopulation of cats in urban areas is obviously our fault, and even though we view taking away a pivotal part of their nature with distaste, something still has to be done. Even with some of their buddies losing their mojo, cats are still going to be around longer than us anyway.

Image via miketaylor.org.uk.