Controlling the Source of Feral Cats

Responsible pet ownership should be encouraged and fostered so that it happens voluntarily. Irresponsible pet ownership should be frowned up by the community and arguably punished in the courts. An irresponsible attitude towards keeping a domestic cat results in (a) health and welfare issues regarding the cat and (b) quality of life issues (and rarely health issues) regarding the community.

Controlling the source of feral cats comes down to responsible pet ownership.  I prefer the phrases, "responsible cat caretaking" or "responsible cat guardianship" as they foster a better attitude towards the cat companion and therefore a more responsible approach towards their welfare.

Responsible cat caretaking is reflected in a cat's needs as summarised in a piece of excellent legislation from Great Britain: Para 2 of section 9 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006. To this section of legislation I think we can add that cat caretakers today (2012) should be required to microchip their cats. Or if not microchip, there should be an alternative (perhaps safer from a health standpoint) to identify the cat as belonging to a certain individual. This would facilitate the return of stray cats to their "owners", if the owners accepted them!

As at 2002, in the United States, only 2% to 3% of all shelter cats are returned to their owners. Microchipping has been recorded as greatly improving this low figure. (See also Microchipping Pets including Cats and Important Micro-chipping Information).

Also responsible cat caretaking should include the requirement that cat caretaking is for the life of the cat. Only in the most exceptional cases should this requirement be withheld. Such a requirement would prevent casual adoptions leading to early relinquishment - see also understanding cat behavior.

The domestic cat that is allowed to go outside should always be neutered or spayed. Or allowed outside into a cat enclosure. I realise that this is asking a lot but whether it happens or not depends on the commitment of the government and local authorities. It could happen. It just means upping the level of priority given to the "feral cat problem". Widespread, subsidised neutering should be available, ideally, for people who need financial assistance.

The last important piece in the jigsaw of creating a high standard of cat caretaking across a large area (nationally or statewide in the USA or other countries) is to initiate some sort of education program for cat caretakers. There is a lot of ignorance about keeping domestic cats. Incorrect expectations based on a lack of knowledge about domestic cat behavior will result in a person abandoning their cat. This may happen soon or after years of mismanagement. People who struggle with caring for cats should have a means to seek advice and training to ameliorate the situation and a service of some sort should be in place to facilitate rehoming in bypassing the cat shelters that so commonly euthanise cats.

The difficulty in instigating change is that it probably needs legislation - the creation of new law. People don't like that and it needs to be enforced. That costs money and money is in short supply (at 2012) and the feral cat is a low priority problem. See People Should be Fined for Abandoning a Cat. 

World Popularity of Trap Neuter Return

The map below shows the attitudes of different countries towards using trap-neuter-return (TNR) to control feral cat populations. It is based on my feelings acquired from reading a good amount on the subject.

Blue=poor/not considered TNR, Red=Good TNR,
Orange=Average/Poor TNR, Pastel Blue=Poor TNR

This is not a map based on hard science. It can't be because there is not enough hard science on TNR yet. Also it is very generalised. It is probably slightly controversial.

TNR is still a developing method of controlling feral cat populations. In some countries there is a blurring of the demarcation between domestic, stray and feral cats. The feral cat is accepted in some countries. TNR is therefore not considered because the need to control feral cat populations is not considered. These countries have not developed to the point where TNR is referred to.

Also in cooler European countries the feral cat is hardly visible (England, Germany). Therefore there is not a pressing need to control the feral cat population. However, it would seem that the old, developed countries have developed TNR more. This is to be expected. I refer to European countries. Holland has an excellent approach for example. And some of the earliest TNR program studies come from England.

There is a tug of war on the efficacy of TNR in some younger developed countries. The argument swings between killing and more humane techniques. North America falls into that bracket I believe but tends to decide upon TNR as the preferred method. Conversely Australia tends to favour killing in this battle between humane and cruel controls. I would expect the USA and Australia to come around to the TNR way of thinking in due course. Israel falls into the middle ground as well.

Japan and Hong Kong have barely got of the ground on developing TNR. However Japan has good animal welfare laws.

The Lucky Feral Cats of Holland

Holland has an advanced, humane and sensible approach to animal welfare. It must be one of the best countries in respect of animal welfare. They have a very long standing animal welfare organisation, The Dutch Society for the Protection of Animals (DSPA) that was founded in 1864. It has 200,000 volunteers!

The DSPA has had some landmark successes in influencing the creation of national animal welfare legislation and their influence in this regard goes back to the late 1800s.

The society influenced the basic methodology of the drafting of the Animal and Welfare Act in 1992. On the society's recommendation, the Act is based on the "no-unless" principle. The fundamental premise of this principle is that there should be no practices that hurt animals unless it is provided for in legislation. It puts the onus on those who might hurt animals for the sake of commerce to argue that it is justified. It is the animal that takes priority over the person. Excellent concept.

There are 110 shelters in Holland and all are affiliated to the DSPA. There appears to have been a stray cat problem in 1996 as the population of cats at shelters had increased dramatically since 1992 to 31,100. The solution? In 1997 all shelter cats plus 15, 000 owned cats plus 3,000 feral cats where spayed and neutered (48,800 cats in all). That is the kind of positive, no nonsense action that should happen elsewhere.

A national sterilization program was implemented in the late 1900s. Perhaps there has to be a long history of animal welfare in a country before it has an impact. But in Holland great things were happening over 100 years ago. Wouldn't it be nice if the animal welfare societies in the United States could put pressure to bear on the US government to ban declawing nationwide and deal with the feral cat problem in a similar manner?

Google Should Open A Shop

Perhaps Google should open a shop to provide them with another outlet for their energies and ambitions. On the ground, high street shops, would also provide an interface for true, in the flesh, meetings with website entrepreneurs and internet users, Joe Public. In addition to a shop being a meeting place it could also serve as a training establishment on such diverse matters as maximizing revenue from Adsense and the use of Adwords. They could also promote website building in seminars. And utilize the seminars as brainstorming sessions. Google needs feedback from users.

One to one, or one to several, group meetings might have the benefit of broadening what might have become slightly introverted, stagnated thinking by Google. Google is also becoming a bit bloated. They have a lot of clever employees fine tuning great products and making them worse (potentially) in doing so. New products are created but not presented to the word as efficiently as they might be.

Come and join us, the public, on the high street. Get plenty of feedback and new ideas and at the same train us in your expertise. This sort of approach may also go some way to seeing off criticism that Google is too big and dominant. Google like to give back. This might be better carried out on the high street.

Shops would also be good for branding. The look and feel of the Google Shops should be as per their offices: open, colorful and funky. There should be a coffee shop inside the shop!

And if you have a shop you need some products to sell. There is no reason why Google cannot manufacture and sell products. The already provide components for products in the form of software, I am using Google Blogger this minute.

Google need to stop tinkering with the good and expand in a different direction. Classic Google is still the best search engine if you turn off Google Plus One. Most of the "improvements" have not improved it, in my opinion.

A bustling, busy and productive Google Shop would be a great advert for giant Google that needs to freshen up their image.

Feral Cats Of Israel

The feral cats of Israel are very visible. When I was there about 12 years ago I immediately noticed them scuttling around the alleyways. It was sad to see. You don't see feral cats in the UK. They are there but you don't see them. There must be more of them in Israel because of the warmer weather.

There are four major players in the feral cat story of Israel. They are pulling in different directions. Although things are changing.

The Public: The cat as a companion animal is not highly valued we are told. The cat is not kept as a companion animal to the same levels that you find in the UK and USA or Europe. On the basis that that is correct it informs us about the underlying, general attitude of the Israelis towards the domestic and feral cat.

For decades feral cats were simply rounded up and killed because they were considered to be a health hazard (rabies) and a nuisance. This did not resolve the feral cat problem. The feral cat population remained stable (moral: killing feral cats does not work - take note people in the United States who want to kill feral cats).

Obviously there are responsible cat lovers in Israel. But there are also careless ones; one reason why the feral population remains stable after years of slaughter.

Ministry of Environment: these are the humane government employees. For some people they would be considered the more sensible and enlightened too. They support TNR and animal rights. This ministry has also issued guidelines on feeding feral and stray cats and how to deal with cat colonies. I wonder if these guidelines conflict with those of the Ministry of Agriculture?

Ministry of Agriculture: this part of government tends to prefer killing as a means of feral cat control. It appears to be a discredited method although they would argue that in keeping the population stable they have prevented it rising. Apparently the ministry's vets don't understand TNR or want to get involved in it or in publicly funded sterilisation programs. They have issued a procedure that instructs people how to deal with feral cats in relation to trapping, feeding and euthanasia. I have not seen the document but it appears to favour killing. Poisoning feral cats, however, is a crime under existing Israeli legislation (para 4 of the Animal Welfare Law, 1999). People still trap and kill feral cats.

The Court: the Supreme Court has stepped in. They appear to have decided that the Ministry of Agriculture procedures are unacceptably harsh and cruel in promoting the large scale killing of feral and stray cats. They may even have been in breach of the animal welfare laws of the country - I don't know. The court declared that non-lethal solutions are preferable. This must include TNR, the best known non-lethal method. The court also wished to refine rules governing the control of rabies.

As a result of the court's declaration a committee has been set up bringing together parties from "Ministries of Health, Agriculture, Environment and Interior, local authorities, veterinarians and representatives of animal welfare organizations" to find common ground and a better and more humane way to deal with the feral cats of Israel.

Note: Israel has an increasingly enlightened attitude to animal welfare demonstrated by making declawing illegal.

Sources: The Welfare of Cats edited by Irene Rochlitz and The Ministry of Environmental Protection, State of Israel - Cat Welfare.