News Briefs for the Week of June 16, 2002
By Marcella Durand for Cat Facts
- Navy Plans to Evict All Stray Cats
In a disappointing jump backwards, the United States Navy has decided to ban trap-neuter-return programs on its bases. In trap-neuter-return programs, or TNR, feral cats are trapped, neutered and released back into the same area. The presence of the neutered cats prevent new cats from colonizing the area, while the feline population shrinks naturally. Last year, the Navy made some major steps forward in humanely controlling its feral cat population when the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia, agreed to adopt TNR.
But on January 10, 2002, Admiral Vern Clerk, Chief of Naval Operations, approved a new "Policy Letter Preventing Feral Cat and Dog Populations on Navy Property," which prohibits feeding feral animals and/or implementing TNR on Navy property. The new policy also requires the "humane capture and removal of free-roaming cats and dogs...no later than 1 January 2003." Since feral cats are considered by many animal shelters to be unadoptable, many of these cats will certainly face death. And, because the feral cats are removed but the source of their food (usually garbage) is not, other feral cats almost always move in and recolonize the area.
"We're all devastated," says Cynthia Moose, a marine machinist at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard and a primary caretaker of the feral cat colony there. "None of us understand why all of a sudden this has come about."
In a letter to Admiral Clerk, Ed Boks, executive director of Maricopa County Animal Care & Control in Arizona, wrote, "As director of the largest animal control program in the United States, handling over 10,000 feral cats annually in a county larger than 17 states, I can tell you first hand, that after 30 years of the catch-and-kill methodology your new policy advocates, our feral cat problems only grew worse and worse each year. There are very real biological reasons for this reality. I can personally assure you that your new policy will only exacerbate your feral cat problems."
You can send polite letters expressing your opinion to:
Admiral Vern Clark
Chief of Naval Operations
2000 Navy Pentagon
Washington, D.C. 20350-2000
- Stray Population Control Studied
And speaking of feral cats, researchers at the Center for Companion Animal Health at the University of California, Davis, have modeled population dynamics for what is still a little-understood group of animals who survive in the midst of human society.
Specifically, the study sought to understand whether TNR actually does have an effect on feral cat populations, and how many cats need to be neutered to reach that effect. Based on data from the San Diego County Feral Cat Coalition, the researchers found that, according to its models, 35 percent of the female cats in a colony must be spayed for the population to decline.
- Stray Population Control Studied
And speaking of feral cats, researchers at the Center for Companion Animal Health at the University of California, Davis, have modeled population dynamics for what is still a little-understood group of animals who survive in the midst of human society.
Specifically, the study sought to understand whether TNR actually does have an effect on feral cat populations, and how many cats need to be neutered to reach that effect. Based on data from the San Diego County Feral Cat Coalition, the researchers found that, according to its models, 35 percent of the female cats in a colony must be spayed for the population to decline.
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