An urgent call to cat lovers!!

[hyphenate]

This petition is to help save countless ferals and strays who are systematically being killed. There ARE other ways to handle the feral population, and this plea is to make people away of alternatives.



Feral cats are born outdoors and have not been socialized. Uncomfortable around humans, they will never be comfortable living in human homes. They make homes in colonies wherever they can find food, be it in alleys or under a boardwalk. On their own without human intervention, breeding is not controlled, and their numbers steadily increase.

Feral cat colonies need to be controlled, but needlessly killing cats is not the answer.

Feral cats are killed daily in animal control facilities because they are unadoptable and animal control officers aren't aware there is a better way.

In reality, the system only provides space for more cats to move in and start the breeding process again. Killing cats is not the answer! Sign this petition today >>http://go.care2.com/e/R6b./fr3c/oEvq

Trap-Neuter-Return, or TNR, is the most effective and humane way to manage feral cat colonies. It is a full management plan in which stray and feral cats are humanely trapped, vaccinated and sterilized by veterinarians.

Kittens and socialized cats are adopted into good homes, and adult feral cats are returned to their familiar habitat where they can live healthy lives under the lifelong care of volunteers.

Sign this petition to make it clear that you want the killing of feral cats to stop!
http://go.care2.com/e/R6b./fr3c/oEvq

Thank you,

Robyn E.
Care2 and
ThePetitionSite Team

[graywarrior]

1. Done..and thanks for posting it

[Cleita]

2. My community has what I think is a good program for dealing

with feral cats. Since we are fairly rural, there are colonies of feral cats through the county. There is an organization that traps the feral cats and neuters them. Then they release them back to the wild. There are feeding stations that volunteers put food out to supplement their diets of mice and gophers in case they don't find enough to eat. They do an important job of keeping the rodent population down.

They do attempt to socialize the kittens and adopt them out. The ones that can't be socialized are also neutered and released back to the fields. I believe the program works quite well because I really don't see that many field cats like I have in other places that were overun with starving and breeding cats.

[Donnachaidh]

5. Raising feral kitten here

Had one who lived to be 14 years old, And he was a joy. This new one was found in the rafters of a house being built, and was only a week old. Fed him with a bottle for several weeks. My hands looked like chopped sirloin, but he's another blessing in our house.

There are FAR too many people wo think it's fine to just kick out pets who've outgrown their cuteness. These animals suffer needlessly because of people.

[peacebird]

14. That's a great system! I have had two feral cats, both adopted as kittens

both were "fixed" and - while it took some time, both became lovable (if skittish around strangers) members of the family.

One was adopted from the pound, and the other from a dumpster..... I wish everyone would spay and nueter their pets if they aren't PLANNING on breeding them and prepared to find homes for the offspring. I came home to find a baby kitten on the porch last spring - poor little thing barely had its eyes open, covered in burrs and ticks... We surmised that someone brought a litter out to our dirt road in the country and dumped them.

I don't understand such cruelty.

[Southsideirish]

3. I hate that term. They are just "homeless" cats who, usually, were pitched out

by assh*le people who left them to fend for themselves.

I adopted two of them years ago and they had been living "on their own" for several years - at least the mother had been. They were WONDERFUL pets - sweet, affectionate, took to the little box immediately - I would do it again in a minute if my husband hadn't developed a terrible allergy to cats at age 55.

[eleny]

6. My hubby also developed a cat allergy - in his 40s

So after our last cat died we're petless.

[demnan]

4. Done

Thank you.

[devilgrrl]

7. done!

:-)

[Sydnie]

8. Here's our local group, they do great work

http://members.aol.com/habitatcat/private/HFCstory.htm

Make sure to check out the sanctuary too.

Will pass the petition around.

[Donnachaidh]

12. here's an Atanta group that does good work

http://www.spay-neuterteam.com/

[ends_dont_justify]

9. It happens everywhere and I hate it

I recently wrote to the australian government about its handling of their 'feral' species (akin to animal torture justified on animals they didn't want around). I was happy when progress was made for giving birth control baits, then suddenly I hear stories in the US about how it's legal to shoot cats and mistreat them and kill them....seems one victory only leads to another battle sometimes.

Don't give up hope though...sometimes, it takes just the right comment at just the right time to make a difference.

[Forkboy]

10. My cat of nearly ten years was born in the wild,but you'd never know it now.

He was part of a capture and neuter plan they use/used on Cape Cod,and we happened to get him and his mother at the same time.The group kept them and slowly got them used to people before giving them away.My cat is now the biggest lapcat on the planet,and he's a million times more sociable to people than I am. :)

[Donnachaidh]

15. I wish my feral babies were sociable to strangers

They aren't really. Although the new one realized who was family (the visiting ones) he is usally smart and finds a hole until he's properly introduced.

And I'll NEVER be able to throw out the sweater he used as a surrogate Mom when he was a kitten.

[Forkboy]

18. Mine wasn't sociable at all for quite awhile.

He avoided everyone in the house,but I got him to sit on my lap one night when I was on the computer playing games.The first time he stayed all of a minute,but he kept coming back for longer and longer stretches.After his mom got killed by a coyote he really latched on to me,and since all my friends like cats he's learned that everyone has a lap that will work!

His favorite thing is to have someone...ANYONE...hold him like a baby with his paws on your shoulder.At twenty pounds he'll last longer than your arms will. :)

[Donnachaidh]

23. well you KNOW of course he isn't a cat -- not in his mind

He's just a very hairy human :bounce:

[verse18]

11. done

From a mom of two humanely adopted fur babies.

[NMMNG]

13. Done. A very worthy cause! n/t

[montanacowboy]

16. Done!

when I lived in DC I had a little colony in my alley where I fed them everyday

[Madspirit]

17. Done! and k&r

We have a TNR group in Austin. It's great.
Lee

[northofdenali]

19. Done. All my kitties are rescues, and

we don't have much of a feral cat problem here - it gets too cold for them to live without some kind of care and shelter :cry:

My mom lives near a port and a beach in a warm climate. The feral cat problem there WAS immense until about 15 years ago, when one woman gathered a group of friends and said something had to be done. Using humane traps with food lures, most of the kitties were spayed or neutered, then returned to their various "hoods". The population is now much, much lower, and everyone likes seeing these playful, funny, ferocious little lions. Sure, they aren't nice to birds (most of which are bigger than they are..) or mice, or bugs - but they do eat well nowadays, with food being left at strategic spots in case any "newbies" show up who need to be treated.

Our local vets here treat ferals without charge, and will go to the feral's spot if necessary.

All kitties are worth it. They are incredible mammals with a ton of human traits. I couldn't get through a day without mine.

I can't do a kitty thread without a couple of photos: Sugar knows she's a hottie...

One Nosey Diddie-Bits Leaping...

I just ate a WHAT?

Sassy - lettin' her Freak Flag fly.

Bouncer, king of all he surveys, he thinks..

Cinnamon, Queen of the World.

And for you puppy lovers out there, the problem can be the same! So here's a photo to warm your hearts -

When I grow up, can I run the Iditarod, too? Please, mommy??

I want to save my polar bears, black bears, grizzlys, seals, walrus, caribou, all our native birds, all our flora and fauna. I can't without everyone else doing the same. So I do what I can, as much as I can.

Can you all please do the same? Even if it's only signing a petition? Please? :hug::cry::hug:

[frogcycle]

20. live healthy lives

stalking and preying on the songbirds, competing with threatened raptors for rodents?

I might accept tolerating them in cities, where they may help keep down the rodent population. But where I live they are yet-another human-induced menace to the natural wildlife, and NEED to be culled, just as do deer and raccoons (autos do a pretty good job on the raccoons, but the cats and deer are a problem)

[hyphenate]

21. I'm so glad to hear people

who are responding so positively! In 2003, I lost two cats to the "wild" and I sincerely hope that if they survived on their own that they would be safe from being killed in a horrible fashion. If they survived, there would be enough other hazards around from Mother Nature to try to escape, and adding non-sympathetic humans to the mix would make their chances of survival almost nil.

My beloved Dax escaped from the van on the way cross-country far away from where I was heading, and his little sister Kira escaped from the house 8 months later, and was never found, despite "lost" signs, endless searching and a humane trap set up. I grieve for them both often.

The more people we are able to educate about the situation of the ferals, the better. I would certainly like to see a day when the pet overpopulation is not only managable, but nearly non-existent. It would be a long awaited dream for everyone.

[Blaukraut]

22. done n/t

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

24. Done! My beloved Amy is a rescue kitty and thank goodness for the people who found and took

care of her until she became a member of my family.

Thank you and Amy thanks you too!

[spooky3]

25. done--thank you!

[Cobalt Violet]

26. Done. n/t

[LWolf]

27. Feral cats are a problem.

There's no way around it. I live rurally, and when I moved into my current home, I had an entire colony out in the barn.

I spent a year trapping, spaying, and re-releasing. I trapped one litter of wild kittens, and snatched one litter from their mother as soon as they were walking. I socialized the younger group myself, and turned the older trapped kittens over to experts. I found homes for all but 2 of the kittens. One was runty and wilder; I kept her, and her brother to keep her company. She grew into a beautiful pet. Her brother was killed by the cat colony. He wasn't as timid, and ventured out through the doggy door to the barn.

I never did trap all the cats; there was one pair that eluded the traps after a full year of efforts. The previous owner had actually fed this cat colony. I quit feeding. They eventually disappeared. The cat I have left, that little runty kitten, is a beautiful, playful, affectionate cat. She also doesn't like being indoors. She comes in to eat, and she comes in to sleep when it's cold. She also comes in when she has a "gift." Spring is here, and I'll be disposing of mice, rats, and voles 'til next fall. She much prefers spending her time in the barn that she was born in, though. Nothing makes her happier than for me to spend the day in the barn doing chores. She likes to sit on my shoulder, and has been known to launch herself from the ground, from a beam 10 feet up, or from the hay stacked to the roof, trusting that I will catch her, lol. She gets along just fine with the dog, the horses, the chickens, the sheep, and the cat that came with me when I moved in.

I don't know what happened to that colony when I cut off the food. I hope they found somewhere else to live. I liked them, even though I didn't want an entire colony living in my barn. I spent countless hours, and lots of money, trapping, spaying/neutering, and releasing. All for just one colony in a region that is overrun with feral cats.

[femmedem]

28. Thanks. We caught and spayed two feral sisters, Mia Feral and her sister Meryl.

We built them an insulated house and fed them. After about a year, Mia started letting us pet her, which surprised us because we knew she'd been born feral. Sadly, Meryl disappeared, but Mia is still with us four years later.

Feeding her has never attracted other cats, although on cold mornings we've seen an opposum and her come out of her house together.

[Nictuku]

29. I have a Neighbor

I have a neighbor who feeds feral cats. I stopped one day and told her I thought it was cool she was helping them. That is when I found out that they are all TNR cats.

Originally a lady fed them, but after she died, they still hung around her house. That is when this other neighbor lady came to their rescue.

They have all been spayed/neutered, and she gets food donated to feed them, as well as spends her own money on other items like Advantage for fleas.

I now feed them 5 days a week on my way home from work, and when the neighbor lady is on vacation. There are 10 cats in this colony. I'm glad I can help, they are good cats. (Just not cuddly or anything like that)

[sammythecat]

30. signed with a comment

Good on you for posting this, :thumbsup: and I hope it has an impact.

[Lefty48197]

31. Do you know of any organizations that are performing the procedure?

What does it cost? Where can people send donations? Are the hawk and coyote populations suddenly rising in areas where the feral cat populations are growing?

[AirmensMom]

33. Here's a good one.

http://www.1-800-save-a-pet.com/adoption_rescue/71005.html

[Kool Kitty]

32. Done.

My husband and I feed a group of homeless cats, so this is important to us.

[hyphenate]

34. A kick for the morning crew!

[HeeBGBz]

35. My Kennel boss participates in Trap, Neuter, Return

It seems like a good program that works. I've helped in taming down one feral kitten that was adopted. She was beautiful. I wanted her to be my baby, but I hadn't gotten my place yet. She went to a loving home and that's what counts.

[mike_c]

36. done-- K&R-- thanks for posting this!

:kick:

[hyphenate]

37. A final kick!

[Nikki Stone1]

38. kick

:kick: