A: Sterilization may not be feasible if the landowner simply won't tolerate cats, the property is being vacated or bulldozed, a cat in the colony has tested positive for rabies, the colony is feline leukemia positive, affordable spay/neuter options are unavailable, etc.

Q: Don't most removal programs fail? Don't new cats move in?

A: With any management method (removal, sterilization, or a combination) success depends on far more than just "the method used."

If you remove a population of 20 cats, and the landowner removes every new cat as soon as it appears, removal is successful.

• Removal fails when landowners arrange the removal of cats, but not all the cats are captured. Remaining cats breed and soon complaints resume. Trapping every cat is hard work. If the landowner hires the removal done, it will be costly as well. If the landowner does not invest the time, or the money, the program will fail.

• Removal also fails if the landowner removes every cat, but doesn't monitor aggressively for new cats. If no one goes out and specifically looks for cats (check for tracks in snow, put out a bait and tracking station, etc.) a new cat or two will go unnoticed there will be a swift repopulation. I recently trapped "every cat" at a rod and gun club. After a recent snow I drove out for a quick check and discovered...more tracks. Obviously "every cat" had not been removed. "Every cat" had not been seen by the people who had been feeding them. Only because I went back on my own to check did I discover there were still cats on site.

• If one restaurant traps feral cats, but is surrounded by other restaurants who don't, cats from adjacent properties will move in. There will always be new cats and kittens, because there is no control taking place on surrounding properties. In these cases, all landowners need to work together on cat management.

• Abandonment, without aggressive monitoring for new cats, also can result in failure. If a pregnant friendly female is abandoned at a farm or park and she goes unnoticed, her kittens will grow up feral and breed to nuisance levels before anyone notices and traps again.

• If removal involves large-scale euthanasia, people often will not report the cats. Students at a college campus aren't likely to report a family of kittens near their dorm if they feel "they'll all be killed, so I may as well let them have their chance in the wild." Removal programs are therefore far more successful if some serious attempt is made to place at least the kittens in homes, or support is given to the local shelter's foster program so that a greater number of kittens find homes. Community members who care for cats will sometimes accept one adult cat being euthanized, if at least the kittens get homes. Of course, there are always people who won't accept euthanasia on any terms. But the fact is, removal programs that kill almost every cat are unpopular with most average citizens. Even if they think "it is better for the cat to be put down than live outside, hungry, in the cold," they often are unwilling to be the one who makes the phone call that reports the cat. A successful removal program needs the cooperation of as many community members as possible, to ensure that all cats are reported and captured.

Thoughtful and aggressive removal programs--that closely examine the individual physical situation, take the beliefs and concerns of community members into consideration, and provide ongoing monitoring for new cats to deal with them immediately--can be successful.

Programs that try to be stealthy and hide from the public, are under funded, or under staffed, or that include reluctant or uncaring participants, will often fail.

Q: What kind of removal situations would be called "successful?" if new cats always have to be removed?

A: Keep in mind, whether a population is managed via removal or sterilization there will always be "new cats." You could be living safely in a rented interior apartment on the third floor of a complex and find a kitten at your door one morning. There is no magic bunch of garlic that will grant a guarantee to keep feral and abandoned cats away.

If a house and old industrial complex are being bulldozed to build a new shopping area, and resident cats are all removed, food sources are removed, and shelter is destroyed via development, new cats are not likely to move in (unless the new business creates a nuisance food source-open dumpsters, etc.).

If a farmer has a rabid cat in a population of barn cats, removes every existing cat as ordered by the health dept, and then takes all new abandoned kittens to his local shelter as soon as they appear, and perhaps keeps a neutered, rabies-vaccinated barn cat or two, he will not experience an increase in population unless he ignores future abandoned cats.

If a college campus removes all existing cats, and finds homes for all the kittens (via a campus program or in concert with a local shelter), and campus police and campus maintenance personnel specifically report new cat sightings and look for tracks, and a staff member is in fact assigned to look for tracks after storms in the snow, etc. new cats can all be captured. On college campuses, new cats may be lost or abandoned pets, and will be friendly enough to place in homes. Education in the residence halls, giving students phone numbers of local shelters and warning them that abandonment is illegal, may reduce the incidents of pets being left behind at academic breaks.

"Success" does not mean "there will never be another cat to worry about." It means "we should always be alert for new cats so breeding never becomes an issue, the population never again gets out of control, and fewer cats must be taken to a shelter or euthanized." By that definition, removal can be successful.

Q: Can't I just tell my staff or my children to stop feeding the cats, and the cats will go away?

A: Animals congregate in certain habitats according to the availability of not only food, but water, shelter, and companions. Removing food often does not result in cats simply moving out to look for other food sources if other attractants (dry shelter, a male cat drawn to females in heat, a frightened tame cat comforted by the presence of humans, etc.) are strong.

Female cats, especially pregnant cats, often will stay right where they are abandoned. Owners of seasonal houses often return to discover a tame cat and feral kittens in residence, and there was not one scrap of human-provided food to be had. The cat was abandoned, and stayed where there was shelter because she required it for her kittens. Hunting enabled her to survive until discovery by humans (some abandoned cats with kittens simply die unnoticed while humans are absent).

If an unsterilized female remains, males will certainly visit her. So even though males will often move out to search for new food sources, a cat in heat will certainly cause them to return, or attract new males.

Humane agencies certainly will tell stories of kittens abandoned alongside a road that simply sit there and starve until someone stops to pick them up. If no one stopped, they would sit there and die.

In addition, in most states it is illegal to fail to provide necessary sustenance for a domestic animal. If a person feeds a group of cats, and then simply stops feeding them, they are in violation of state animal cruelty laws. Removing the cats to an animal shelter may be a legal option. Feeding and sterilizing the cats (with landowner permission, where free-roaming cats are legal) may be a legal option. To stop feeding them once someone has been feeding them a long while, is not a legal option.

Q: Why won't the local shelter take my cats? Don't they care? Isn't it their job?

A: It may not be. Would you do a job you aren't paid for? Many shelters receive insignificant municipal funding. Or they may receive funding for dog control but not a dime for cat control. They may rescue cats with donor dollars, but donors to animal shelters usually give money to "save cats" not "kill cats" and as euthanasia numbers go up, donation dollars may go down. Therefore, some shelters refuse to fill the municipal need for cat euthanasia for free, and turn callers away.

Think about your veterinarian, who is running a business. You find a stray dog that has been hit by a car in the road, and take it to your vet. He operates on the dog for you for free because you are a good customer, and he even finds it a home with another customer whose dog just died. But can he take in every single stray dog that needs help, pay for its care, and find it a home? If he did, his business would shortly be bankrupt. There is no real fiscal difference between a for-profit veterinarian, and a non-profit private animal shelter. If the animal shelter receives no significant financial support to euthanize unwanted cats, it is not going to take on that liability for free on a large scale.

Q: Aren't people who insist on removing cats simply cat haters? Can't they just get the cats fixed?

A: People who love cats often find it hard to understand that other people may not want the responsibility of a neutered cat or a colony of cats. If you love and enjoy cats, the effort of feeding them, worrying about them, and taking on the liability of someone being bitten does not seem like a large cost to pay for the enjoyment you receive.

But if you are the type of person who simply, for some reason, takes no real enjoyment from the sight of a cat--maybe you are even frightened of them--is it rational to assume that you will take on extra work, cost, and liability, for something that gives you no satisfaction whatsoever, and in fact makes you uncomfortable?

Cat rescuers aren't expected to also rescue dogs in equal numbers. Many cat people don't even understand why "dog people" find dogs incredibly enjoyable, and would resent it if someone suggested they should spend an additional few thousand dollars rescuing dogs when they are already rescuing cats.

Similarly, some landowners wish to put their personal efforts into something that is more meaningful or suitable to them than sustaining a cat colony. They may volunteer for the local church, give a portion of their paycheck to the United Way, or simply have their hands full raising their children. They are good people, but caring for twenty cats for ten years simply is not a thing they wish to do. Nor should they be forced to do so if they are unwilling.

Some people also believe strongly that cats should be indoors. The sight of a cat shivering in the cold, or walking with a bird in its jaws, disturbs them. It would be difficult to convince all of these people that their very strong concerns for animal welfare should instantly be changed to accommodate not just tolerating the existence of outdoor cats, but to actually KEEP outdoor cats themselves.

Business and apartment complex owners have a special concern, and that is the safety of their residents and customers, and damage to their property. If it is against the law to maintain free-roaming cats, a homeowner may be willing to flaunt the law and hope she doesn't get caught, but a business owner may be less willing to take this risk. A homeowner who loves cats may not mind if they dig in the garden, but a condo association will have to also take into consideration the concerns of residents who don't like cats and do love their flower gardens. Business owners often do not feel that they have the same autonomy as a single homeowner because they are responsible for the welfare of other people. They may be unwilling to support feral cats on their property, even if they have cats at home.

It takes a lot of work to capture, sterilize, and care for, multiple cats. To someone who loves cats, this may seem like an enjoyable past time. To someone who doesn't, it is another task to be done. It is not surprising, given the work and expensive involved, that a landowner who does not find cats enjoyable, might prefer to take a feral cat and kittens to the local shelter, rather than tame the kittens, find them homes, have the mother sterilized, and keep her for the duration of her life. This does not make them a bad person.

Sure, there are the real jerks in the world that call us up and say "If you don't take these cats away for free I'm going to shoot them." But there are also jerks that call and say "SOMEONE should rescue these poor cats and if you won't YOU don't care," but they themselves won't lift a finger or a dollar to help. I put these uncaring people in the same pigeonhole, and loving or hating cats has little to do with it.

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