FOCUS ON FERALS
Squeaker, on duty at the San Antonio Country Club. Squeaker’s “Working Cat House” shown to the left.
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Feral Cats Sink Claws Into New Career
By Rose Mary Budge, Special to the San Antonio Express-News
March 28, 2012
There are some really cool cats on Gary Ryno’s San Antonio Country Club security team. And the slightest whiff of them sends sensible rats running. As for the foolish ones that stick around, well, if main mouser Candy doesn’t get them, her backups will.
Candy’s team of fellow feral felines includes Squeaker (a street-smart stray), Bobby Bobtail (an intimidating tabby), Cane (a tough young tom) and Arby (who once lived under a vacant building). The cats’ main duty is to spread their scent. This usually scares mice away, making drastic action unnecessary. But no matter how they get the job done, Marvin Jones, club executive director, is delighted. “We’ve seen a dramatic decrease in rodent activity,” he says.
Before the rodent terminators arrived, trespassing pipsqueaks were getting out of hand; poisons, traps and pesticides weren’t doing a thing to deter them and were bad for the environment to boot.
A search for a better alternative led them to the Working Cats Program, a cooperative venture between Texas Barn Cats and the San Antonio Feral Cat Coalition. A sort of kitty employment agency, the program finds homes for colonies of feral felines that are too wild to be house pets but perfectly suited to be “rodent-control technicians.”
“Feral cats have been misunderstood, maligned and given little respect, when actually they can control harmful vermin and be very beneficial to the community,” says Jenny Burgess of Texas Barn Cats, who came up with the concept. “The cats benefit, and so does the business where they’re placed. It’s a win-win solution.”
Burgess hopes the country club’s crew will be just the beginning and that cats will eventually be placed in dozens of places where rodents roam: farms, ranches, seed-and-feed stores and warehouses, for example.
Several weeks ago, she placed a feline named Blue at Doringcourt Stables in Bulverde. Blue’s nickname might as well be Dirty Hairy because mice made the kitty’s day. He now guards the horses’ feed and the barns.
Customarily, feral felines - born in the wild, the offspring of strays - are recruited for such jobs. Cats are trapped, spayed or neutered, and fully vetted before being placed. Burgess often keeps them in her outdoor enclosure for a time and appreciates their abilities and individual personalities. Employers must confine newly placed cats for two to three weeks - a process called imprinting - so they won’t attempt to return to their former haunts. Then they can be released for work.
Ancient Egyptians kept felines to protect grain reserves, but Voice for the Animals in Los Angeles is, perhaps, the first modern organization to recognize the beneficial potential of ferals. In 1999, it introduced 50 into the city’s rat-infested flower markets. Merchants scoffed. But when the cats moved in, the mice moved out. The Los Angeles Police Department soon had feline patrols cleaning up rodent-overrun stations. The San Francisco SPCA has placed working cats at a cab company, and Virginia’s Barn Buddies advertises rodent-control techs-for-hire on the East Coast.
The movement continues to gather momentum.
In Houston, the Feral Cat Assistance Program is making its mark. “We’ve been placing feral cats in barns for some time now, and they’ve been living handsomely thereby,” rescuer Harriet Rankin says. Among her group’s success stories: Lone Ranger, Billy the Kid and Annie Oakley, relocated from an unwelcome urban colony to a friendly Needville barn. Tomball SOS (Save Our Strays) also boasts a successful barn-cat-placement record.
In the greater Dallas area, Barncats, Inc. and Feral Friends are among the advocates. Austin is placing community cats through its Austin Pets Alive! Brazos Feral Cat Allies is tapping into the kitty-employment market in College Station. Indeed, all across Texas, felines are on the job.
Of course, not all jobs work out. Even cat-friendly management can be swayed by an uninformed public, laments one Houston rescuer, who took some job candidates to a Mexican restaurant and then had to retrieve them when a neighboring business objected.
Happily, such complaints are rare. Once people understand the purpose of the program, acceptance usually follows. “Ours are great cats … fun to watch and have around,” Ryno says, adding that Candy and company quickly won hearts at the club, sometimes sharing tasty tidbits from lunch sacks and seemingly pleased with their new territory.
If you’re interested in hiring a few felines to keep your business mouse-free, contact Texas Barn Cats at 210-378-9036 or , or the San Antonio Feral Cat Coalition at . (Source: )
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Feral-Cat Rescue Builds Club Members’ Bonds
By Michael Machosky, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
November 7, 2011
Even though they spent a good part of their summer catching feral cats, a group of women from the Diamond Run Golf Club would like to emphasize they are not cat hoarders.
OK, chasing cats across a golf course with a net looked a little weird. But that wasn’t the whole story.
“We did look like crazy cat ladies during that period,” says Diamond Run member Kassie Segmiller, 51, an attorney who lives in a home on the course. “That didn’t work as well. Then we tried to trap (them), and we just got better at it. We figured out that they like ham and turkey.”
The elegantly manicured grounds of a golf course are typically places where nature is organized, shaped and sculpted down to the individual blades of grass. But it’s close enough to actual nature that, sometimes, animals can’t tell the difference. The Diamond Run Golf Club, in the rolling hills of Franklin Park, found itself home to a feral cat colony, when several homeless cats began seeking shelter in and around the club’s golf-cart barn.
As they tend to do, this feral cat colony started to get bigger. And bigger. Feral cats are those that have primarily grown up or adapted to life in the wild -- typically the offspring of stray cats, which are lost or abandoned pets.
“Last year, the bag-drop guys found these five kittens. They showed them to me, and started to feed them,” Segmiller says. “Some of the members would drop off food. Well, five kittens led to five more kittens. And then they kept feeding these 10 cats.” When the season ended, the cats would no longer be fed, after growing up with handouts from people.
“I kind of took over from there,” Segmiller says. “I’m not going to let these cats go without food for the winter. So I started tromping my way down there every day with food for these cats. As it turns out, some of them were pregnant. That’s when a lot of the members -- not just the women, some of the men -- got involved. They’re helping catch the cats. Everyone read up on it -- you’re supposed to catch, neuter, release -- at least for the adults.”
Segmiller and a group of fellow Diamond Run members -- all high-level executives and professionals -- began the long, tricky process of catching the feral cats and kittens. Through their contacts, they mobilized a large e-mail list to help find homes for the kittens as soon as they were born. They found homes for 22 kittens and spayed or neutered nine adult cats. With cold weather on the way, several of their husbands built “feral cat homes” for those that remained outdoors. (See photograph below)
“By rescuing the 22 kittens that were there, and getting them out of there and getting them homes, we’ve saved literally hundreds of cats from being born into a feral environment,” says Diamond Run member Celeste LeJeune, 51, of Mt. Lebanon, an assistant vice president at Ecolab.
“Pretty much all of us ended up with at least one of the kittens,” she says. “That was more of a reward in itself -- they were so appreciative to have homes.”
Feral cats often aren’t easily domesticated, though kittens are typically much easier. The veterinarian who spayed and neutered the cats helped them determine which would adapt to an indoor environment.
“Some that have been outside for a while were nervous,” LeJeune says. “All that have been placed have done well. People taking them in had to understand that they had to have patience. “We took one in that was a year old, a mother. She always came to me. I think they were a little less feral than some cats, because they saw humans from the time they were kittens.”
The best practice for dealing with feral cats is trap, neuter, return, according to the Humane Society. Local expert Kathy Schwenning, 61, of Squirrel Hill, has been helping deal with feral cat colonies in Pittsburgh since 2003. “A lot of people don’t know there’s help out there,” Schwenning says. “It’s usually little old ladies -- they start feeding one, then there’s another, then kittens, and they feel so overwhelmed.”
There are several good local resources, including Animal Friends, Fund for Feral Cats and Homeless Cat Management Team. Schwenning is often called by these groups to help people learn how to trap feral cats on their own. “You, ultimately, want to get them spayed and neutered, or you’re going to be overpopulated before you know it,” Schwenning says. “They’re almost like rabbits.
“Homeless Cat Management Team () -- they have a clinic once a month where they spay and neuter feral cats, that you’d have to register for. They have a free clinic once very three months, which you also have to register for.” Animal Friends (412-847-7004) has a low-cost program that will spay or neuter cats for $30. Traps often can be rented from animal shelters.
“It really takes somebody to show you how to do it,” Schwenning says. “You have to call, make your appointment, get your traps, trap the day before your appointment because you want to make sure they haven’t eaten -- just like a human being -- before their surgery.”
At Diamond Run, dealing with the cat colony had an unexpected benefit -- the women involved became good friends.
“We certainly all got closer, as we sat down there waiting for the cats to go into the trap,” Segmiller says. “You have to be extremely patient when you have a net. ... We actually had a nice wine party back there once, where we had wine and cheese, while we waited for the cats to be caught in the net.”
To commemorate the year’s efforts, the Diamond Run women made a calendar for themselves featuring the kittens. It’s a 2012 calendar, the year all the kittens will be turning 1 year old. (Source: )
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Mice at the Museum: Meet the Hermitage Museum’s 65 Feline Guards
BlouinArtInfo
July 10, 2012
Back in May we learned about the State Hermitage Museum’s unusual pest control strategy: every night the St. Petersburg institution lets some 65 cats roam the institution’s halls in search of prey. The story was sorely lacking video of the feline guards, however, an unfortunate situation remedied by our colleagues to the north at the CBC last week, who’ve filed the adorable video report ().
Though the short item fails to mention the annual Day of the Hermitage Cat celebration on Lenin’s birthday, it does note that a team of three nearly-full-time employees look after the cats, that the feline patrol program is funded largely by employee contributions (scandal!), and that the Hermitage now welcomes stray cats to join its team.
“They’re not just mascots,” says staff cat wrangler Irina Popovets, “they’re really employees of the Hermitage and they play a very important role.”[1]
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Cat Makes 6-Mile Trek Back To NH Home
The Associated Press
July 17, 2012
BEDFORD, N.H. — Animal rescue league officials say they don't know how a black cat walked about 6 miles in three days to find his way back home in New Hampshire.
(Because he did), Wollie the cat has been reunited with Barbara Oliphant.
She began caring for the stray last summer. But when her husband was hospitalized with a stroke, she said she couldn't give Wollie much attention and turned him over to the Animal Rescue League of New Hampshire in Bedford in early June.
Her husband began getting better, and Oliphant missed Wollie — a name that came from her husband's nickname, “Oli” — terribly. Her daughter secretly adopted the 3-year-old cat on June 23 with the intention of surprising her mother with the return of her much-missed pet, but Wollie poked a paw through his zippered carrier in the parking lot and escaped.
Three days later, Oliphant said she spotted Wollie crossing a road leading to the house. “I just felt it was a miracle,” she said. “I felt the cat wanted us.” He ate three cans of cat food and slept for about 24 hours.
“Only he knows the story, where he went, what he was doing,” Laura Montenegro of the rescue league said. “I just still can't get over it.” (Information from: WMUR-TV, )
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Calling All Cats:
Gonzales Can't Get Enough Feral Felines
by Eric Gonzales, KENS 5
August 3, 2012
GONZALES, TX -- While San Antonio and many other cities are overrun with feral cats, the small town of Gonzales, Texas has a different problem. It needs more feral felines. Business owners in the small town east of San Antonio say they want more felines to help keep other creepy critters like snakes and rats away.
With that need in mind, Gonzales Animal Control created a program to catch stray cats and with the help of several donors like Petco and Petsmart, the animals are spayed or neutered then released back into the community. Mary Anne MacLean, who writes grants for the town says the program has drawn more than $330,000 in funds.
Once the felines hit the ground they get right to work. “They work for farmers or ranchers in their barns and in their chicken houses.” said Mary Anne MacLean. “It's become a good symbiotic relationship.
The program has worked so well that Animal Control doesn’t have enough strays to go around. Larry Valis, who spends his day rounding up strays said, “A lot of people are wanting feral cats right now. I can’t keep enough of them.” He’s having to ration the strays to each business for a certain amount of time, transporting them to other businesses or ranches that may want to provide a home for the cat’s service.
The program has been such a success that other towns are reaching out to Gonzales officials to learn how to model a similar strategy. “Some of them are calling and wanting to know how the program is working and what they need to do,” said Valis. It's a program that has allowed Gonzales Animal Control to keep stray cats out of the animal shelter and serving a purpose.
As long as the grants keep coming city officials say they're in good shape. (Source: )
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Free-Roaming Cats
Can Bring Communities Together
Bryan Kortis, PetsMart Charities Blog
August 13, 2012
Many would argue that free-roaming cats are the biggest issue facing the animal welfare industry. They’re responsible for majority of the kittens produced in the U.S. Some may also say that, sometimes, it’s challenging for animal welfare professionals to all just get along.
Okay, the “can’t we all just get along” issue is not necessarily unique to the animal welfare field. But you see my point. I’ve been fortunate enough over the years to work with one animal welfare group in particular that really excels at addressing both of these issues.
Alley Cat Advocates brought their Louisville, Kentucky, community together to address its growing free-roaming cat problem. And they did it exceedingly well, cutting free-roaming cat intake in half in the zip code responsible for the highest stray cat intake in just two years while introducing trap-neuter return (TNR) as the officially mandated approach to feral and stray cats in the Louisville community.
An Organization At The Forefront
TNR on a community-wide scale is a relatively new practice, and Alley Cat Advocates has always been at the forefront. When Karen Little founded the group in 1999, she focused on setting up a high volume spay/neuter clinic which concentrated on TNR efforts. But soon, she and her team recognized that the community needed more of an advocacy agency, not just a service agency. “We needed to do more than just passively wait for people to call us,” Karen said.
To get to that point, Alley cat Advocates applied for a PetSmart Charities® Free-roaming Cat Spay/Neuter grant. They were one of our first applicants in this new and growing grant area. We funded a $75,000 grant to spay/neuter 2,000 free-roaming cats in one Louisville zip code.
There Just Aren’t As Many Cats As We Thought
Free-roaming cats cause a lot of issues in their communities. The animal welfare field has always assumed that this is because there are so many of them. We even had a standard formula to use as a starting point for calculating the number of free-roaming cats in a community: divide the area’s human population by 6.
But what we’ve discovered by working with Alley Cat Advocates is that, though free-roaming cats do cause a lot of issues, there just aren’t as many of them as we assumed. We reviewed some of the research on the topic, and the results of some of our grants, and decided that a better starting point would be to divide the area’s human population by 15, not 6.
A Quick Adjustment
Even with our learning curve, Alley Cat Advocates has had tremendous impact on the Louisville community, reducing stray cat intake by 51% in their original target area. Stray cat intake in the rest of the region dropped only 20% during the same time period. \
But they’ve needed far fewer spay/neuter surgeries than we originally thought to accomplish this reduction. In fact, since the initial grant, Alley Cat Advocates has only needed to perform 1,350 surgeries. This is even after it expanded its scope to include 2 more zip codes. The group has adjusted to this learning quickly. We’ve now added 7 more zip codes to the mix to achieve our goal of 2,000 surgeries.
“We were able to affect monumental change with far fewer surgeries,” Karen said. “Intake has dropped dramatically, and today we’re having trouble finding any cats coming in from our initial target zip code.”
Community Relationships Build Trust
Part of the reason that Alley Cat Advocates had such tremendous impact on the Louisville community was that they worked very closely with their local animal control agency—Metro Animal Services. This was an overwhelming success. Together, the two groups instituted a ride-along program. When animal control responds to cat complaints, a representative from Alley Cat Advocates accompanies them. When they arrive at the scene, they focus first on whether it’s practical to TNR the cat and keep her where she is—versus a knee-jerk reaction to bring the cat right into the shelter.
Demonstrating Impact; Institutionalizing Change
The rest of the community started to take notice. First, a city council member whose district included Alley Cat Advocates’ initial target zip code started noticing a drop in volume in cat-related calls. Even when she got calls, they were handled quickly. She was so thrilled; she became a champion for Alley Cat Advocates’ TNR programs with other councilpersons. Together, they enacted an ordinance which directs the local animal control agency to develop a TNR program. “If we hadn’t been able to focus on that neighborhood, and show the government officials that TNR works, we would never have been able to initiate that type of change,” Karen said.
According to Karen, PetSmart Charities’ grant “put Alley Cat Advocates on the map.” In addition to the ordinance change, Metro Animal Services now consults Karen on best practices involving free-roaming cats for their group. Plus, Alley Cat Advocates started getting more recognition from other local animal welfare groups. Karen even received an award from a local television station for her significant volunteer work. (Source: )
A Tom Named Trixie
By Denise LeBeau, Best Friends Animal Society
September 27, 2012
You know the type. Every neighborhood has one. He’s the alpha male. Some call him a heartbreaker, some call him baby daddy, others call him a nuisance.
Trixie was all that and more. A 10-year-old large, gray tomcat, he had been strutting his stuff throughout the community for quite a while. People complained.
Luckily, Trixie lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where a grant from PetSmart Charities® has enabled Best Friends to partner with the Albuquerque Animal Welfare Department to bring a massive, three-year trap/neuter/return (TNR) plan to the area.
TNR Saves the Day
As part of the community cat program, nuisance calls about free-roaming cats get routed to our partners and staff. The nexus of the program is to stop the influx of cats from entering the shelter system by getting them spayed/neutered and returned (aka trap/neuter/return, TNR) from whence they came.
Desiree Triste-Aragon, program coordinator, fielded the call about Trixie and headed out to the area right away. She saw quite a few gray-coated cats of every age in Trixie’s territory. She knew she was going to be helping quell a lot of new litters just by fixing this one cat. And she knew she’d be back to make sure all the other cats of the area were also spayed/neutered.
“What I encountered when I answered the call about Trixie was astounding,” shares Desiree. “I located his caregivers, and they were blown away when I explained to them that I was going to pick up the cat, get him neutered, and bring him back. They were overwhelmed with the service we were providing. They knew he needed to be neutered, but they didn’t realize the resources that were available.”
Desiree identified five additional caregivers in the area and has fixed 40 cats in Trixie’s neighborhood, approximately 90 percent of the colony so far.
Working with the public in a nonjudgmental, solution-based way is a hallmark of the program. The program also has a Spanish-speaking program assistant, veterinary technician Melissa Rivera, who helps provide extra support in the neighborhoods that are often overlooked when resources are distributed.
Partnerships Prevail: Jayne and Alek
Desiree works closely with Jayne Sage and Alek DeWispeleare of Street Cat Companions to coordinate the TNR efforts of the community cat program. Jayne and Alek have been doing TNR in Albuquerque for over six years. Jayne has taken a scientific approach by using computer mapping to track known cat colonies and determine where more concentrated resources need to be focused.
Jayne and Alek are a critical piece of this lifesaving puzzle – they not only assist in transportation (along with Desiree), they work directly with feral cat caregivers. In addition to spaying and neutering the cats, any cat that is ill or injured has their issues addressed as part of the program.
Helping people who have a sick or injured cat has had some further benefits. As Jayne and Alek explain, “We get a lot of calls about medical issues and that opens the dialogue about spay/neuter. There are many people feeding cats in Albuquerque. People care about them, but they don’t always understand the importance of getting the cats fixed. We assist with getting their cats the medical attention they need, but we also get the cats spayed and neutered.”
Results-driven
The community cats of New Mexico have an advocate in Jim Ludwick, the animal program analyst for Albuquerque Animal Welfare. A seasoned journalist by trade, he’s been promoting TNR since 2007 when he was hired to analyze city animal programs and make suggestions about how they can be improved. At the time, several thousand feral cats were being routinely killed in the shelter every year.
“Even though Albuquerque was trapping and killing thousands of cats, the program didn’t succeed as a population-control effort,” shares Jim. “Meanwhile, the feral cats added to crowding in the shelters, contributing to problems that jeopardized our adoptable cats.”
The TNR program helps the overall conditions in the shelters, while reducing the killing and providing better population control in neighborhoods all over town.
“It’s been months since we’ve killed a cat for simply being feral,” says Jim.
The save rate for cats during the month of July was 89 percent. Overall, the cat euthanasia between April and July of 2012 was down 68 percent, and intake was down 16 percent compared with the same time last year.
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Feral Cats Put To Work At Cedar Park Business
KEYE-TV (Austin, TX)
October 17, 2012
While most people are trying to get rid of feral cats on their property, some Central Texas business owners say feral cats are helping them control pests and saving them money. The Austin Humane Society helps by fixing the feral cats so the colonies don’t multiply. They spay and neuter about 5,000 cats each year and then return them back to the businesses.
Don Virta owns D-Tydo’s Upholstery & Works in Cedar Park. About a year ago, a few stray cats showed up at his business and he started to feed them, but he says they started to multiply. “Then automatically I have ten cats, so then I’m thinking I really need some help with this, I don’t want to get over run, I don’t want to be considered the crazy Cedar Park cat man or anything like that,” he says. Virta partnered with the Austin Humane Society who fixed all the cats and returned them to Virta’s property.
The cats help keep Virta’s pest control bill at a minimum. “I don’t worry about little rodents or snakes or anything else because they chase them off,” says Virta.
Leticia Stivers coordinates the feral cat program, she says their program has helped several business including big technology companies to restaurants who use them outside their establishment. “They realize that their Orkin bill has been zero because those cats are actually providing a service to the community of taking care of the rodent population out there,” she says. (See full video report, )
Home buyer embraces feral cats
Cathy M. Rosenthal, San Antonio Express Columnist
December 21, 2012
Dear Cathy: I wanted to share a happy story with you as I know you must hear many unfortunate ones through your column and blog. Prayers and kind people do make a difference.
We needed someone to care for my mother's nine feral cats after she passed away and her house was put on the market. I had emailed you because I needed help in placing the cats. You recommended the San Antonio Feral Cat Coalition.
With help from a very dedicated SAFCC member, six of the nine cats (plus a male stray among them) were trapped, examined by a vet, and re-vaccinated. The male was also neutered while he was with the captured sterilized colony members. Afterward, my brother and I brought them to our properties for continued care and for eventual release into our neighborhoods.
During this time, the buyer got word to us through the real estate agent that she would take up to three cats, so the last three un-captured cats remained behind.
After the house was sold though, the buyer contacted me directly and said she would love to have all of the cats back at their birthplace. It seems her agent's assistant did not convey her true message, for whatever reason. The new owner explained that she was a believer in combining the old with the new and saw no problem with enjoying the cats my mother loved, in addition to having proven mousers on hand, and an established colony that was not too keen on sharing the property with other strays.
She also said that she could tell my mother had been a caring person who left behind a beautiful house and garden. The new owner has an 8-year-old daughter and a small poodle who is friendly and enjoys being around cats. She said her dog wouldn't be chasing them.
My brother and I released the cats back to my mom's former home. What a rare, unexpected and wonderful outcome for all.
Sheila
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Web Extra: Cats at Work Project
Hope Holmberg, July 31, 2013, WTTW (Chicago)
While Jay Shefsky tagged along with city workers to learn more about rat control in Chicago, we were curious to find out about other local organizations that had alternative ways of dealing with rats – aside from spreading poison to kill the pesky creatures.
We spoke with Jenny Schlueter, Community Cats Program Director at the Tree House Humane Society, about a “green” approach to rat control in Chicago called the Cats at Work Project. Since its inception in 2005, more than 100 “working cats” have been successfully placed in private city and suburban backyards, barns, and even a factory by the Tree House Humane Society.
Can you describe the program? In some neighborhoods, like Lincoln Park, there are a lot of restaurants but not a lot of stray cats, which is bad for rodent issues. What we decided is we would approach people to talk about relocating feral cats to their backyards.
The Tree House Cats at Work Program is a “green” humane program that removes sterilized and vaccinated feral cats from life-threatening situations and relocates them to new territories where their presence will help control the rodent population. It helps cats and the community, because it gives the cats a place to live, and it provides a great service for the community.
When did the program start? Since 2005, we’ve placed cats in rural homes through the Trap-Neuter-Return program. However, the Cats at Work program started in the city in May 2012. My theory is that these are generally city cats, and they are probably more suited for a city environment than a farm environment. It’s funny because the Cats at Work program gets a lot of notoriety for being innovative, which we appreciate, but it’s really an age-old solution. Civilizations have been using it for many years.
How does it work? All of the cats we take in come directly from places like alleys, backyards, and industrial sites in the city. We take them in, and get them neutered and vaccinated. Then, we basically bring cats that have nowhere to live to a trained volunteer caretaker. We bring a minimum of two cats, never just one, and we try to relocate groups of cats that already know each other. First, we consult with the caretaker to find a quiet place that’s going to be convenient for them. It’s usually someone’s back porch, a shed, or a garage. Some people even build cat houses. Then we inspect the enclosure. If they don’t have anywhere for the cat to live, we provide large dog crates.
During the first few weeks, we recommend that caretakers feed the cats twice a day, and interact with them a little bit. After that 2-4 week acclimation process, the caretaker lets the cats out to roam the area. Once the cats start roaming, the caretakers continue to feed and shelter them, and we check in with the caretakers every week. The program is privately funded, and caretakers pay about $50 to participate. This helps the neighborhood, it helps the cats, and it helps us when we don’t have anywhere for the cats to go. It also decreases euthanizing of cats in the city.
Which neighborhoods have utilized the program? We’ve primarily been working with the 47th ward. Ald. Ameya Pawar is supportive of the program. There were a lot of rodent abatement requests in the 47th ward so they decided to try it. Since they are near the river, they have more issues with rats. He and his staffer, Dara Salk, thought it was a good idea, so we started a pilot program with them in 2012. Since then, we’ve brought 23 cats into the 47th ward.
When we first started the program, there were concerns about how it would go, so we started it pretty silently. We didn’t do a lot of promotion, but word spread pretty quickly. A lot of people contacted us and said, ‘I don’t live in the 47th ward, but can I still participate?’ Now we have cats all over the place, but mainly on the North Side. There are several in Lake View and Lincoln Square. Other cats have been relocated to Humboldt Park, Bucktown, Rogers Park, West Ridge, and Irving Park.
Have there been challenges? One of the biggest hurdles we have is getting people to buy into the process of acclimating the cats. We say they’re
not aggressive, but it’s sometimes a hard sell. People think we’re bringing them these wild animals, but it’s been really amazing to see how these animals bond with people.
How is this process “green?” It’s very instinctive for cats to hunt and kill rodents. It doesn’t involve any poisons. There’s nothing more natural than this process of abating rodents. It saves money for the city, it’s more humane, and it’s safer for people.
Are these cats really capable of killing rats? Definitely. People question their capability to get the larger rats, and I will say that every cat is not cut out to get the larger ones. However, just the cats’ presence in an area deters rats from roaming around.
Everybody we’ve talked to has been super pleased within a matter of days. They say they definitely see a decrease in the number of rats. Some people report that they are totally gone. I am happy, because I wasn’t 100 percent sure it would work everywhere.
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[1] The tradition of having cats at the Hermitage dates back to 1745, following a decree signed by Empress Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great. (Source: )
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