Feral cats are wild offspring of tame cats, or cats that were abandoned when young and have become too shy to handle. Attitudes towards cats have changed. Instead of ignoring them, or taking it upon ourselves to personally kill extra kittens, citizens are more inclined to seek someone to help solve the problem (as they perceive it). Because citizens have radically different beliefs and values about cats, people with different beliefs may come in conflict about how a particular population of cats-or all feral cats-should be handled.

The information that follows is very long. It is meant as a serious, value-laden, objective follow-up to other more traditional webpages that promote a particular set of beliefs. For sterilization as an management option, we suggest Neighborhood Cats for the most concise, easy to print, clear webpage. For removal as a management method, we suggest The Armed Forces Pest Management Board guidelines on feral cats or

If you have the time and an open mind, stay with us. If you need information fast, go to the links above and come back to us afterwards.


Why are feral cats suddenly an issue when no one seemed to care before?

Traditionally, when people saw a feral cat, they thought: "That cat can take care of itself." If they saw an injured wild cat they thought "Isn't that sad. I wish there is something I can do, but there isn't. That's how life goes." If a farmer had too many cats, he shot some, or disposed of kittens, often by drowning. Sick kittens on a farm were a fact of life.

However, times have changed. New farmers are often suburban transplants, looking for a simpler more respectful life. They are unused to killing or ignoring sickness, even though they are willing to kill livestock for food. Pet owners are more likely to provide their pet cats with excellent veterinary care, and when they see a stray on the street, they feel that stray deserves care, too. For the past three decades, humane agencies have gone into schools and preached the need for spaying and neutering to lower the number of unwanted pets. Those school children have grown up and now ask: If my pet cat should be spayed, shouldn't that wild cat be spayed too?

Because fewer people are willing to take it upon themselves to kill unwanted animals, and are more likely to feed them rather than ignore them, feral cats have become, if not more numerous (numbers are uncertain), certainly more noticeable.

As people care for feral cats by feeding them, building them shelters, and neutering them to prevent kittens, they themselves become more noticeable. College campuses, parks, wilderness land managers, and industrial campuses that once simply ignored feral cats now can't ignore that lady that comes every day to feed them, takes them away for veterinary treatment and sterilization, and then brings them back.

A problem that was "out of sight, out of mind" for many decades, is now in your face, literally.


Why is there a conflict over what should be done with feral cats?

Humans have very strong emotional reactions about cats, and these reactions are often transferred to humans who hold an opposite view.

People who love cats don't understand "cat haters." They think there must be something wrong with a person who would actually go out of their way and trap unwanted cats and take them to a shelter to be killed, rather than take a few steps to at least find a home for one or two, if they can't save them all.

People who dislike cats, or are neutral about them, can't understand why a person would go out of their way to stop for a stray cat, spend money on a stray, add yet another cat to their household because the cat needs a home (not because they really want another cat). They certainly do not understand why any person would spend many hours and many dollars to actually catch wild cats, sterilize them, build them shelters, and feed them. What kind of worth are cats you can't pet? Why not simply put these cats down?

At the worse, cat advocates call the other side "cat haters." The people who don't much care for cats call the cat lovers "cat wackos." Neither one takes much time to look at the issue from the side of the other, and emotions run very high. Each one finds the other slightly mentally askew, as if they were born with something not quite right. Each one is certain they themselves are correct, and the other just can't see the forest for the trees.

In truth, the world is not made up of "cat wackos" and "cat haters" or "bird people." The world is made up of people who place different values on different living creatures, and have different ways of reacting to pain when they witness it.

One cat lover who sees a cat in the cold may be sickened by it, and feel the cat is better off humanely euthanized. They may even take steps to bring that about, themselves, by calling the local shelter, capturing, and transporting the cat.

One cat lover may be similarly sickened, but instead they build the cat an insulated shelter and get the cat sterilized, because that is what they do for their own pet cats. They may have a free clinic they can take the cat to, or they may even pay for it themselves, just as they would their indoor pet cat.

One animal lover may look outside and see a cat with a bird in its mouth and think: "My God!" and rush out to save the bird, without even thinking. To them, seeing a cat with a bird in its mouth is much like seeing a dog with a cat in its mouth. An animal is in the distress, and needs to be saved.

Another ecologically minded animal lover may look outside, see the cat with the bird in its mouth, and see A) a cat that they believe would be safer indoors and B) a native species that has been needlessly destroyed by a domestic animal permitted to run at large by someone who obviously doesn't care much about cats or birds.

None of these people are mentally ill or over the edge. However, if they believe strongly about their position and get into discussions with people who hold a different view, conversations get louder, and more intense, and more stubborn. The person may go off to find journal articles to support his or her beliefs, and the research out there now is insufficient and hasty, at best. The person will cruise for webpages or even build their own (a little poke at ourselves, here!) to support their stance.

The crusade to save feral cats - or protect birds - becomes more than a belief, and turns into a hobby. From a hobby, it may even move to grassroots advocacy. From advocacy, it can even move to a profession.

Once a belief becomes institutionalized by becoming the mission of an organization, the advocates involved may have to become necessarily less flexible, because they are promoting a single belief or set of beliefs. To waver back and forth confuses the public, and makes the organization look like they aren't an authority. Messages must be simple to be remembered by a busy public.

However, the truth is, no one answer fits every situation and the truth is complex, not simple. Which is why our webpage is so long, and theirs are short and to the point. We are the second resource you should visit, after you visit your primary advocacy resource.

They will answer your initial questions. We will make you think about them, so you ultimately come to a decision that fits the situations you encounter.


So you have lots of emotional cat lovers or environmentalists. So what?

Real regulations, laws, and standard operating procedures are being made based on emotions and insufficient research. Programs have been shut down based on incorrect conclusions. The truth gets spun a bit, here and there, to promote these beliefs. Poor research is quoted blindly, simply because it supports a belief and it is all that is out there.

Real dangers, such as rabies, are either blown out of proportion ("feral cats are rabies vectors and all of them must be killed for the safety of the public") or downplayed ("wildlife are the largest rabies vector, and no one has ever died from rabies contracted from a cat"). The fact is, there are not great pools of rabies-infected cats but cats are the most common domestic species to contract rabies and if a person is bitten by a cat, or many people petted a cat or kitten that ultimately tests positive for rabies, tracking down these people and protecting them with post-exposure vaccinations can cost thousands to millions of dollars.

This fact does not mean all feral cats must be killed. Nor does it mean every feral cat has a right to life that must never be assaulted. It does mean that each conflict involving feral cats needs to be individually evaluated.

Laws written based on emotion and spun facts are usually bad laws. Regulations need to promote the best outcome: fewer cats. When lawmakers are thinking only about "saving cats" or "saving birds" they often aren't thinking about "fewer cats in twenty years."

We are concerned with fewer cats in twenty years. Bad regulations or poor programs won't get us there.


So why is The American Cat Project different?

The founder of AmCat started trapping cats as part of a wildlife control business, but has a background in domestic animal rescue and control. We therefore have a lot of experience hopping from one side of the fence to the other, or sitting solidly on the rails watching both sides.

In residential wildlife control, for profit, the problem is not solved until it is solved to the satisfaction of the landowner. If the landowner has squirrels in his house, and he doesn't want squirrels killed, squirrels are excluded rather than killed (made to leave and not return, often with one-way doors), because the customer is paying the bill and wants live squirrels. If the customer really doesn't want squirrels at all, the squirrels may be trapped and relocated (nonlethal option) or killed (lethal option). The landowner has the ultimately decision-making power, although the landowner and the trapper work together to determine the best course of action to solve the problem.

Existing laws may limit options. If it is against the law to relocate squirrels, the wildlife control operator can't offer this as an option.

Humane consideration may limit options. If it is below zero in the winter, relocation is not humane, and killing the animal may be the only humane option short of leaving the animal in the house. Try to convince the landowner of that when they have a skunk in their basement curled up by the broken furnace.

The wildlife control operator can educate the landowner. They can point out why some animals can't be saved (the raccoon has rabies) or relocated (it's against the law to relocate that particular species). They can explain to the homeowner than one method may cost more than another. Many landowners are happy to pay more if it means saving the animal's life. The wildlife control operator can point out that what seems humane (relocation instead of killing) may be inhumane under certain circumstances (a skunk relocated in winter will die).

If the wildlife control operator doesn't solve the actual problem, the customer either won't pay him, hires someone else, or badmouths the trapper's business. It is in the interest of the trapper to actually solve the problem, and they need to customer's cooperation to do that. Trapping and killing one raccoon because it is getting in the chimney, and not putting a chimney cap on, is not fixing the problem if there are two raccoons, or another raccoon moves in the following week.

Feral cat control is much the same. If the landowner loves cats and they call for help, they will only accept help from someone who offers a nonlethal option. If someone doesn't want cats around, they will only accept help if the cats will be removed. Removal, by the way, doesn't necessarily require killing all the cats.

If the only option in the area is TNR (Trap, Neuter and Release), people who want cats gone will either ignore them so that the cats keep breeding, or attempt to remove them themselves which often results in abandonment at farms.

If the only option is euthanasia at a local shelter, people who want cats saved will also ignore them ("At least they have a chance"). This also results in more cats, because cats continue to breed.


The Goal: Significantly fewer feral cats in twenty years

If we were a for-profit cat control business, would only care about making the customer happy, solving their problem for the moment, and getting our check. But the fact is we aren't just concerned about the customer. What we care about is

Significantly fewer feral cats in the United States in twenty years

We not only need to fix the customer's concern - sick kittens, too many cats, any cats at all - we need to make sure we never have to go back there again, except to deal with one new cat as soon as it shows up before it has kittens. We need to know that there will never again be kittens at that location, and resident cats will never be replaced.

For that you need the long term cooperation of the landowner, and a well-forged relationship. It might be OK for a wildlife control business if another raccoon shows up at the home where he just removed one, because the landowner keeps feeding birds and raccoons like birdseed. The wildlife control operator gets paid a second time. But it is not OK for us to have to come back for ten more kittens in a year because the landowner didn't call when a new cat showed up. We don't want to go back for a repeat call, because that means we failed.

Fewer feral cats in twenty years means:

  1. Solving the landowner's actual complaint
    Is that complaint that cats are suffering? Suffering must be dealt with.
    Too many cats? The number of cats must be reduced.
    Is that complaint that cats are raiding nests in an endangered species area?
    That complaint must be dealt with.
  2. Impressing the importance of long term success upon the landowner
    Will the landowner call when a new cat appears, so it can be removed or sterilized? If not, a phone call must be made every few months to check up on them. If kittens reappear and are not addressed, the initial program is no longer a success.
  3. Making each situation count by keeping good data and making the case study available to others who may run into the same situation.


Landowners and stakeholders are the most important factor

The key in this equation is the landowner and other stakeholders. By stakeholders we mean other people who will affect the program such as college students on a campus, or cook staff at a restaurant. Almost all property where feral cats are found will be private property. Certainly there are cats on public property, and these situations get the most press. But land managers there are much like property owners elsewhere. The problem must be solved to their satisfaction.

You may be able to convince the land manager or owner to accept a different technique (sterilization over removal) however, if you don't solve their actual complaint, they will not see your solution as successful. If the technique you promote will not solve the problem (sterilization, when the problem is cats being killed in car engines in a parking lot), another technique may be required, like it or not.

This is why we oppose the banning of options, or the promotion of one to the entire exclusion of another. A worse case scenario, such as an unvaccinated colony where a cat tested positive for rabies, may require a worse case solution - the killing of every unvaccinated cat.

A simple case - one elderly woman feeding six cats at her rural home, who likes cats but is tired of finding homes for kittens - can be easily solved by just fixing the six cats. Suggesting to that woman that she let you kill the cats, when she has called for help to save them, would be absurd. To tell her all you can offer is killing the cats means she'll just say "thanks but no thanks" and the cats keep breeding.

"Fewer feral cats in twenty years" means there is no one simple answer that will fit every single situation.


What is a feral cat? Definitions.

"Feral" is a term that relates to the wild behavior and circumstance in a species we normally consider domesticated (tame). A feral cat is a cat that was born wild and can survive in its environment with little or no human support, if necessary.

There are other common feral species in the United States. Pigeons (Rock Doves or Rock Pigeons) and wild hogs are previously domestic species that have reverted to a wild state.

As communities attempt to resolve conflicts involving free-roaming cats, the word feral has been broadened to include cats that are not actually behaviorally or physiologically feral.

It is often used to refer to any stray cat that is the slightest bit shy, or cats that were born feral but were tamed as kittens and now live in homes. People will say "my cat is feral" when in fact their perfectly friendly housecat was simply born a feral kitten, and is no longer. This is a hard habit to shake, and normally would not be worth a struggle over semantics.

However, broad use of the term feral - and also the tendency of persons to equate "feral" with "necessarily unowned" - can cause error, violation of state law, or creation of unclear cat control ordinances.


Definition of types of cats

Our definitions are based on three real aspects:

Physiology - Is the cat physically capable of survival without human support (feral) or do physical shortcomings require human-provided shelter or food (less feral)?

Behavior - Does the cat avoid human contact and continue to shun it after capture (feral) or does it seek human contact (less feral)?

Ownership - Is the cat tolerated or supported by a landowner or caretaker (owned) or unnoticed or not tolerated (unowned). Is it lost property (owned)?

Feral cat - a cat that lives apart from humans and supports itself primarily by hunting. Feral cat populations survive even if all human support is withdrawn. The fittest cats have been chosen via adaptation as unsuitable cats died, and suitable cats survived to give birth to increasingly suitable kittens. Physical types will vary depending on the environment where the colony exists. Kittens might be tameable into handleable pets.

An example of a situation involving feral cats:

     http://www.abc.net.au/nature/island/ep1/locals/3.htm

Feral-acting cat - a cat that shuns direct human contact, even once confined, whose major source of support and shelter is provided by humans or human actions, and who would suffer physically if support were withdrawn because their behavior, learned skills (beg for food rather than hunt), and physical type are unsuitable for their environment. Feral-acting cats may survive quite well with human support even if their physical type of not suited for their environment. Kittens and some adults might be tameable into handleable pets.

Stray cat - a past pet that has become lost or was abandoned. These cats may appear wild because they are frightened and flee strangers. Once captured, they become more handleable. Cats that have been stray a long while may be more shy and take a longer time to evaluate post-capture. Strays can often be reassured back into the role of handleable pets.

Free-roaming pet cat - a cat that is current attached to a particular household, receives all of its support and shelter from that household, and is generally approachable or at least only mildly alarmed by strangers. These cats can become stray or feral-acting if they lose contact with their homes. They can often be reassured back into the role of handleable pets.

Indoor pet cat - a cat whose life has been spent confined to a human residence. These cat can still become stray, and often can also return to pet life if they survive their outdoor experience. Indoor pet cats may be tame or feral-acting! Many people own what they sometimes call "house ferals" or "couch tigers."

Sub-definitions

Owned cat - depends upon state law, but in general is any cat, whether feral-acting or a free-roaming or an indoor pet, whose presence is tolerated by the landowner and receives intentional support via food, shelter, or veterinary care.

Unowned cat - true ferals if not welcomed nor provided with any support by the landowner or land manager; feral-acting cats if unnoticed or not tolerated by the landowner (i.e., landowner takes immediate legal steps to remove them, or simply doesn't notice them, or assumes they live elsewhere).

Potential lost property - Stray cats are best considered "potential lost property." If they were abandoned, they are unowned. If they are lost, someone somewhere owns that cat and may be looking for it. However, since we cannot tell an abandoned from a lost cat, all should be considered possibly lost. Any cat with identification, whether a collar with or without a tag, microchip, tattoo, or eartip, should be considered potential lost property. Remember, feral-acting cats can be owned.


Why definitions are important

Cats in different situations must be handled differently. If you euthanize every cat because you assume it is "feral" you will shortly be in trouble when you kill someone's pet or lost pet. Techniques that are used on true feral cats in an endangered species project on a remote island, such a poison, are absolutely not suitable in a mainland situation around pets or owned ferals, regardless of one's opinion on its humaneness or inhumanness.

When counting cats, lumping in strays means the problem seems larger and more expensive than it actually is. Stray cats can go to shelters and into homes. If a population is called "feral" by its caretakers, but cats walk up and asked to be petted, people get the wrong idea of what "feral" is. If a friendly cat bites someone because a passerby grabs it to rescue it, "feral cat programs" get a bad name. Genuinely feral cats will never let anyone get near enough to grab them, and are not bite risks. Tamish cats, and feral kittens are greater bite risks.


How a cat becomes feral

A true feral cat is a cat in an island situation or a very isolated mainland colony, that is a number of generations removed from "pethood." In the generations before him, unsuitable outdoor cats died, and suitable outdoor cats lived. He is born a feral cat and is suitable to survival on his own. Many other unsuitable cats died before him to bring his more suitable traits to the fore. This is adaptation.

"Feral-acting cats" in residential and industrial areas

But most feral cats are only one or two generations removed from pethood, or are even abandoned pets. Even if a colony is isolated, when a pet cat is newly abandoned at that site, the kittens she bears may be poorly suited to the wild life. They may have long soft coats that matt easily; they may be friendlier than other kittens and get in trouble by being more approachable than other feral kittens; they may lack an undercoat; they may have long thin ears and thinly furred paws that tend toward frostbite. So in residential areas, few cat colonies are 100% "feral." Just because a cat is part of a feral colony may not mean it is suitable to outdoor life.

In addition, feral cats in mainland (United States) habitats usually seek food and shelter around human habitation. They scrounge in dumpsters, beg for handouts, eat pet food off back porches, and quickly learn to come to feeding stations set up by feral cat rescuers. If their human-provided food source is taken away, they suffer. They do not simply leave to go hunting for mice, bugs, and grubs to maintain their ideal health and weight, as a fox or raccoon might. They lose weight and often refuse to leave the site because shelter, other cats, or the human presence stronger attractants for females and kittens than food. Unlike raccoons, who may come back a day or two after you remove the garbage can but then leave for greener pastures, cats may continue to haunt you even after the food disappears, growing thinner and thinner and distressing those who watch.

People care about cats in a different way from wildlife or other feral species

Cats have a long history as pets. When we drive by a barn and see a flock of pigeons, we seldom worry about whether they have adequate food or shelter. Pigeons "take care of themselves" even though they frequent farms, mills, and parks where grain is made available by human activities. We trust that if one source of food is removed, they will simply fly to others. We figure (and are usually correct) that they have more than one steady food source. If one is taken away, they know of others.

However, most people have a different attitude toward cats. We tend to feel they belong in homes or as working cats on farms or in shops. We tend to feel an ideal cat is provided with food and shelter. If someone sees a litter of kittens at the side of the road, they wonder: Are they abandoned? Do they live at the nearest house? Should I stop, or are they OK?

Customers often walk over to check out the cats clustered near a dumpster at McDonalds. They would not walk over if the scavengers were pigeons. Our attitudes toward feral cats are entirely different from our attitude toward feral pigeons. In our minds, cats are not wild, even if we call them feral. When we say "a cat is wild" we usually mean "that cat will bite because it has never been handled" not "that cat is just like a fox or raccoon and is really a wild animal and I should just leave it alone."

Wild animals are not regularly provided with feeding stations and little shelters by average citizens. Feral cats frequently are.

Most colonies on farms, on city streets, and on industrial and college campuses are a combination of a few truly multi-generational feral cats who cannot be tamed, some unsuitable, suffering, one-generational cats that might best be rescued or euthanized, and genuinely tame abandoned cats that are merely shy and can easily be placed in new homes.

Still, the public tends to call all of these cats "feral."

When we manage cats by sterilization, we consider only absolutely unpettable cats that stay out of arm's reach to be truly feral. All other cats are removed for adoption.

We do not consider feral cats to be wild animals or "wildlife." We believe they fall under laws designed for domestic pet cats. In New York State, this is Agriculture and Markets Law.


The Problem of Numbers

Because abandoned or stray free-roaming cats are commonly lumped in with feral cats, estimates of "feral cat numbers" are usually far higher than they are in actuality. Some estimates are based on how many cats residents feed on their back porches. Many of these animals could even be owned neighborhood pets. Some estimates are made based on the number of feral cats brought to feral cat clinics. However, we have attended a number of clinics where ours were the only truly feral cats there. We have been called to deal with "feral colonies" where the majority of the cats were friendly and could be immediately removed for adoption. A sizeable chunk of the "feral cat problem" is actually a problem of the abandonment of friendly strays, and the lack of adequate local services to pick them up and find them homes. Rather than dealing with "stray cat issues" a municipality with no cat control or sheltering services at all leaps to the assumption that they have a "feral cat problem" and considers hiring a wildlife control trapper before they even address sheltering, animal control services, and subsidized spay/neuter programs to lower the overall local cat population. This is how powerful language can be.


The Issue of Ownership. There Are Owned Ferals.

There are few unowned animals, tame or wild, in the United States. Tame animals belong to individuals as property, in most states. Lost or stray domestic animals are the responsibility of a state agency that mandates how they should be handled, by requiring towns to have animal control officers, requiring rabies vaccinations of dogs and cats, etc.

Wild animals belong to the state or the public of that state or country, and the authority to manage them lies with a department of Natural Resources or similar entity. Either feral cats are domestic cats and are the responsibility of citizens and municipalities, or they are wildlife, and can be managed as seen fit by Natural Resources. Feral hogs are often managed via legal hunting seasons, and feral pigeons may be declared "unprotected" and can be legally shot without a license. Where do feral cats fit?

It is commonly accepted that "feral cats are unowned." Because the original cats in a feral colony were often abandoned or lost animals, the property owner never really considers the cats his or hers, even if the property owner provides the animals with food, shelter, and veterinary care. This is understandable.

There are people who absolutely cannot get their head around the idea that "feral cats can be owned." The best way to make this clear is to draw a parallel with barn cats. Barn cats are often untouchable. If a farm has ten owned untouchable barn cats that are vaccinated and neutered (what a responsible farm!), what legal or biological distinction is there between those ten cats and the ten untouchable, vaccinated, neutered "feral cats" at the residential house across the road? None.

The only difference between an outdoor feral cat that has lived on a farm for three years, and an indoor/outdoor pet cat that has lived on the same farm, is that one can be touched and easily restrained, and another cannot. Both cats are owned by the farmer, if he or she tolerates their presence on the property, and especially if the cats are fed. Cats that are fed at the back door of a restaurant, and have lived for years under the shed are the property of the restaurant. Cats at the lumber yard are the property of the lumber yard. Cats you feed on your back porch, catch, take to the veterinarian, neuter, and rabies vaccinate, are your cats.

It is important to check your state's definition of animal ownership. Pennsylvania, for example, makes it clear than if you tolerate a domestic species on your property, it is yours. In New York, ownership is not so clearly defined.

It is true however, that many states simply have not acknowledged the problem of free-roaming cats and there are huge gray gaps in the law.

In New York State, dog control is mandated by the state, but cat control is not. Therefore, every town has a person who will pick up the stray dog that may appear on your porch. If the animal is a cat, you may not receive the same service. Only in the most progressive or caring towns, cities and villages will a municipally funded animal control officer respond to pick up a stray cat.

Stray cat services are often provided by non-profit humane agencies, funded by animal loving donors. But many humane agencies simply can't afford to provide full cat control services if their municipalities provide no financial support. Services may be limited.

For example, a shelter might take a cat if you bring it to them, can't afford to it up from your home or trap it if it cannot be picked up. Or they may not accept more cats when they are full.

If you pick up a stray cat yourself, you may find there is no shelter to take it to. Even when there are services, they are often inadequate to meet the huge demand for help.

In these cases, the absence of services and regulation almost require private citizens to step in and take matters into their own hands, or nothing would be done at all.

These citizens understandably do not feel these cats are "theirs" because they did not cause the problem. They are only stepping in because no one else can or will.

Nonetheless, in many cases - especially when the cats are living on property the caretaker owns or rents, or the caretaker has permission to maintain the colony on the property of another person - they are in fact owned cats.

This page to be continued. The information above is a draft. Please check back in early March. Feel free to email us at info@americancat.net if you have questions in the meantime.