Spay and neuter feral cats to reduce burden on taxpayers

Editor,

It seems that there is a lack of attention given in our communities to the problems faced by our local animal populations, particularly feral cats.

Yes, they do exist, and no, they are not just to be found in certain areas of town. It is estimated that of the 82 million cats that exist as pets nationally, about 82 percent have been spayed/neutered. In an equally large population of feral cats, only about 2.3 percent are fixed, which only increases the animal overpopulation problems we face. Scientists have said the majority of those cute kittens that show up in shelters are the offspring of feral cats.

Currently, the only option that seems to exist in many people’s minds is to just call Animal Welfare and request that these cats be taken away. This action ultimately leads to a huge number of deaths since feral cats are wild, and, thus, unsocialized and cannot be adopted.
As a result, being sent to a shelter is usually a death sentence for a feral cat. So how do we save these feral cats and not have them be a menace to human society?

The answer is the practice of Trap-Neuter-Return, where feral cats are trapped, taken to a clinic/vet where they are sterilized, vaccinated, and ear-tip marked for identification purposes and then returned to their colony environment.
Last weekend, Animal Humane had its monthly feral cat clinic to perform this process, where over the course of less than eight hours, 145 cats got fixed, breaking the previous record of about 120.

Why should you care?

More fixed feral cats means that less “abandoned” kittens will fill up shelters posing more of a financial burden on taxpayers. More importantly, though, is that fixed wild cats can live better lives, experiencing better health overall and a large reduction in those same behaviors that grab the negative attention of humans.

Fixed feral cats roam less and make less noise, particularly as there are fewer females in heat attracting the obnoxious meows of males.
Trap-Neuter-Return needs to be common knowledge, and for those people that claim they are animal lovers, this practice is the perfect way to prove it.

There are options if one looks, and together we all need to work toward a better human-animal existence in New Mexico and around the nation.

Siobhan Degnan
UNM student