I’m really sorry. I wanted to have a funny post for you today, but there’s an issue going on that is no laughing matter. The city of Los Angeles is being played for a fool by certain misguided, wrongly-informed groups and it’s no joke for feral cats. Because of a ruling last December, the city of L.A. is prohibited from funding and promoting Trap, Neuter and Return programs. In fact, if someone asks city shelter employees about feral cats in their neighborhood, they are not even allowed to mention that there are privately funded programs that do TNR! This means that many people will falsely believe that their only solution is to take feral cats to city shelters, where nearly 100% of them are euthanized.
What’s even worse is that spring is kitten season, and without help from the city — or even education about spaying and neutering ferals — the population of L.A.’s wild domestic cats is bound to explode, resulting in more ferals being put to death in city shelters, and even greater numbers of cats on the streets. It’s a lose-lose situation.
Photo by Bart Everson
Several organizations, for reasons known only to them, have decided that feral cats are impacting the songbird population, including endangered species, and should be eliminated. This is a curious notion because although I do admit that cats do hunt birds, the biggest threat to the songbird population is not cats, but man’s impact on the environment. Not only that, the city of Los Angeles is a heavily populated, urban area — not the sort of place that harbors rare songbirds. And these people aren’t even taking into consideration that cats hunt mice and rats even more than they hunt birds — and that is good for an urban area. In fact, neighboring cities such as Burbank have set up barnyard cat programs for ferals — people can adopt these cats (after they are spayed and neutered) and rehome them in industrial areas, warehouses and barns where they can control the rat and mice population. This is a much better solution than letting the feral cat population continue to spiral out of control, with euthanizing as the only, ineffective means to do something about it.
Photo by Professor Batty
What about the private programs?
Without vouchers from the city, the full cost of spaying and neutering of ferals is left completely to individuals and private groups, big and small, who foster and care for them. And even if an organization has funding in place, such as FixNation, it can’t be of full use because city shelters are not allowed to tell the public they exist! Make no mistake — the organizations that pushed this ruling through want feral cats dead, even though it’s a fact that euthanizing is not successful in reducing numbers of feral cats.
What can you do to help?
Alley Cat Allies is working hard to restore TNR support in Los Angeles. Please visit this page, and also sign the petition to show that Los Angeles residents want TNR for ferals
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OK, DONE! I don’t live any where near California but I signed the petition – is that ok? That’s like those degenerates in New Jersey who want to pass a law saying it’s ok to shoot feral cats. They give the same reason – cats eat birds. Pardon my bad language but giving people license to shoot cats on the street? WTF?
I am going to sign right now. When will people understand the only humane method to controlling the free-roaming or feral cat population is TNR! This is so frustrating!!!
I signed it with great pleasure. I sure hope it helps. I have 18 here and love every minute of it. At least they get food and are all neutered and spayed and so there won’t be any more from this neighborhood for a while.
Whenever I worked in any kind of big industrial type building feral cats were welcome. Older buildings are always full of rats, and having cats around can help keep them in check. That’s much better than having a rat run across your boots.
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by ChrisGroove1: RT @sparklecat: IMPORTANT: Feral cats in Los Angeles need your help! Here’s why: http://www.sparklecat.com/special/feral-cats-los-angeles…
We’re going to go to that site and sign the petition. It’s a shame that more people don’t understand TNR.
Sniffie and the Florida Furkids
Oh this is awful! We’ll sign the petition and hopefully they change all this soon. Maybe some of the well known animal lovers around there like Ellen Degeneres will hear about this and help raise awareness about TNR and to not take feral cats to a shelter.
There are lots of feral cats at the zoo my mom volunteers at… they TNR there… they can’t keep the cats out, so they do everything they can to keep them safe w/o breeding…. there have been a few that became much more tame and were placed!
[...] It's No Fun Being a Feral Cat in … [...]
Wow, it sounds like the people who want to eliminate the TNR programs need to learn more! We’re going to go sign right now. Thanks for letting us know, Sparkle.
My heart breaks for those poor, sweet cats. I signed the petition and Tweeted this post. I had no idea things like this could happen. Thanks for sharing.
Amen, sista!! Feral cats are NOT a menace to society nor to songbirds. I think teenaged boys are more of a menace, when can we trap, neuter, and return them?!
How sad and tragic. When I lived in L.A. I spent a lot of time in Burbank where I boarded my horse. Another gal and I did tons of trapping, spay/neutering and releasing. And then we’d feed the ferals that hung around the barn because they kept the mice at bay. I believe there was a program back then that help with the cost, but can’t recall now what it was. I still trap/neuter/re-release in the rural area where I now live. Some people are so misguided. I hope there stupid law gets reversed.
I signed the petition.
Good post, glad you are bringing awareness to this issue. Here in CT we just found out that the Humane Society is euthanizing way more animals than necessary, and after just a few days too, to “save” money. Only problem is that the money is going into the pockets of the greedy people (whistleblowers alerted the attorney general) This is so awful not only for the animals but now people will be reluctant to donate.
I just became aware of Alley Cat earlier today, and now I’m reading about them on your blog (which is excellent, BTW). I signed the petition immediately.
So many people are just stupid about cats. I’ve never been able to understand it (I’m totally a cat person myself) but it’s horrifying and sickening to see what such attitudes can lead to. My cats and I are glad to be a part of anything that can help.