Helping Cats

THERE ARE ABOUT 14,000 FERAL AND BARN CATS IN CAYUGA COUNTY

What you CAN and CANNOT do for and about them:

Feral or “wild” cats are the descendants of unaltered pet cats who were abandoned and gave birth to kittens who never had contact with humans. Although ferals are fearful of humans they are still domesticated and ill-equipped to survive on their own. Feral cats do not die of old age. Without human intervention they are poisoned, shot, tortured by cruel people, attacked by other animals, hit by cars or they die of exposure, starvation, and highly contagious diseases. It is almost impossible to turn a feral cat into a house pet though the kittens if caught early enough can be tamed. And these poor cats continue to reproduce unchecked until people begin to see them as a “nuisance” and decide to destroy them.

Animal Advocates is dedicated to the humane management of feral cats. The best way so far to handle feral cats is a program called Trap/ Neuter/ Return. (TNR) which is used throughout the country successfully. That means the cats are one by one trapped and taken to a low cost clinic or a vet donating the service to be spayed or neutered. They are also given a health exam, tested for disease, given vaccinations, treated for parasites and then one ear is notched so that anyone can see this cat has had all these procedures.

The ultimate goal of this program is to stabilize the colony and eventually eliminate the colony through attrition.

TNR can only be done if someone is feeding the cats because they must be returned to that location after the surgery to continue to live (but NOT breed) in that colony.

If you are feeding a colony (of whatever size) of feral cats we’d like to know about it. We can help with the trapping and getting them to spay/neuter clinics The Finger Lakes SPCA in Auburn in cooperation with SOS (Shelter Outreach Services) hold a low cost spay/neuter clinic the second Friday each month for low income owners and for rescuers. Call the SPCA for further information and an appointment at the clinic. There is also SANS (Spay And Neuter Syracuse) , a low cost clinic in Syracuse and others listed on this website’s Spay and Neuter page. Please fill out our “need assistance” form by clicking here.

CRUEL TREATMENT of cats as well as dogs is against the law and punishable by fines and jail time. It is against the law to harm feral cats or to trap them for any other purpose than to take them promptly to a spay/neuter clinic or a veterinarian. If you know of any cruel treatment if a feral cat or cats please report it to the cruelty investigators at the SPCA

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Animal Advocates has plans for turning a Styrofoam shipping box (like Omaha Steaks come in) into a feral cat(s) winter shelter. We also have 2 traps we can loan. And we have the plans for building an outdoor cat yard.

TO HELP THESE CATS WE NEED

Styrofoam boxes (as described above)
cash donations to pay for the spay or neuter of one or more cats (around $25 to $40 for one)
cat food (the kind souls who feed these cats bear a considerable expense)
more cat traps (the Tractor Store has the Hav-a-hart traps for about $40)
cat carrying cases

Educate cat owners you know to NOT allow their cat(s) outside especially if they are not spayed or neutered. Doing so just perpetuates the problem.