FAQ

A stray cat is a pet who has been lost or abandoned, is familiar with human contact and is tame enough to be adopted. A feral cat is the offspring of stray or feral cats, and is not accustomed to human contact. Feral cats are usually too fearful to be handled or adopted.

Stray cats may be reunited with their families or adopted into new homes, but feral cats will find it difficult or impossible to adapt to living as pets in close contact with people.

Without any early contact with people, kittens of stray or feral cats will become feral, too fearful to be handled, and therefore unadoptable. Since a female cat can become pregnant as early as 3-4 months old, the number of feral cats in an area will rapidly increase if the cats aren’t spayed/neutered.

Cats have always lived outdoors, so feral cats are not a new phenomenon.

“Domestic cats (Felis catus) came into existence about 10,000 years ago, when humans began farming. According to scientists, cats are one of the only animals who domesticated themselves. Evolutionary research shows that the natural habitat of cats is outdoors in close proximity to humans. In fact, it wasn’t until the 1940s—and the invention of cat litter—that “indoors only” for cats was even a concept.” https://www.alleycat.org/CatHistory

The outdoors is the natural habitat for feral cats. Evidence indicates they can live long and healthy lives: a 2006 study published in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery found that of 103,643 stray and feral cats examined in spay/neuter clinics in six states from 1993 to 2004, less than 1% of those cats needed to be euthanized due to debilitating conditions, trauma, or infectious diseases.

In addition, the lifespan of community cats compares favorably with the lifespan of pet cats. A long-term study (published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association in 2003) of a Trap-Neuter-Return program noted that 83% of the cats present at the end of the observation period had been there for more than six years—meaning that the cats’ lifespans were comparable to the mean lifespan of 7.1 years for pet cats.

There are ways in which we can improve the lives of community cats, like neutering them, feeding them, and providing shelter. These steps promote the cats’ well-being, improve their relationships with neighbors, and assist the people who live nearby to understand & coexist with the cats. But most feral cats don’t require intervention beyond Trap-Neuter-Return.

There are many reasons why feral cat problems are rarely solved by efforts to trap & remove them. Animal control’s traditional approach for feral cats—catching and killing—is endless & cruel, and it does not keep an area free of cats. Feral cats live at a certain location because it offers food and shelter. 

Cats reside in a location for two reasons: there is a food source (intended or not) and shelter. Because of a phenomenon called the vacuum effect, when cats are removed from a location, survivors of the catch-and-kill effort, and new cats who have moved in, breed to capacity. Cats have been living outside alongside people for 10,000 years—a fact that cannot be changed.

Community cats are very connected with their territory. It’s their home. They are familiar with its food sources, shelters, resident wildlife, other cats in the area & potential threats to their safety—all things that enable them to survive. 

Relocation is not as easy as people may believe. Because cats are bonded to their territories, relocating them requires a long and tedious process of acclimating them to a new area. It is hard work with no guarantee of success. All it takes is one male & one female to repopulate. 

Finding a suitable location with a caretaker is very difficult and time-consuming in itself. Even if a new location is found and proper measures are taken to acclimate the cats, they may still attempt to return to their previous territory.

Relocation should be considered ONLY as an absolute last resort. A better course of action is to make efforts to resolve the problems that are forcing the cats out of their home. In fact, many of the negative cat behaviors that people complain about can be solved by TNR. There are also simple solutions to many of the common complaints, e.g. installing a feeding station further away from properties. This is where the education & community relations portion of TNR becomes essential, as it enables the cats to live in harmony within the community. 

It is a myth that if there is no food available, the cats will go away. This rarely happens.

First, cats are territorial animals who can survive for weeks without food and will not easily or quickly abandon their territory. As they grow hungrier and more desperate, they tend to venture closer to homes and businesses in search of food.

Their malnourished condition will make them more susceptible to parasitic infestations and diseases, which they will spread. Despite the effort to starve them out, the cats will also continue to reproduce, resulting in the suffering and deaths of many kittens.

Second, feeding bans are nearly impossible to enforce. A person who is determined to feed the cats will usually succeed without being detected. Repeated experience has shown that people who care about the cats will go to great lengths to feed starving animals. In addition, there may be more than one feeder & other sources of food, including dumpsters, garbage cans, etc.

Nuisance behaviors, i.e. spraying, urinating, and digging in someone’s yard or garden, jumping on someone’s car and upsetting an owned cat are the greatest concerns that the general public has about outdoor cats.

Overpopulation is a serious concern as well. In the United States, approximately 2% of the 30 to 40 million community (feral and stray) cats have been spayed or neutered. These cats produce around 80% of the kittens born in the U.S. each year. Although 85% of the estimated 75 to 80 million pet cats in the U.S. are already spayed or neutered, many have kittens before they are spayed or neutered. Those kittens, especially if they are allowed outdoors, add to the number of outdoor cats and the problems associated with them.

Once outdoor cats are spayed/neutered & vaccinated, the problems are largely diminished.