Credit where credit is due: HSUS embraces humane feral cat managment
By Gina Spadafori
March 15, 2008
As I’ve said about a million times to at least that many people, I’m pretty clear where PETA stands: Better dead than fed. You can fool a lot of Hollywood ninnies and con a lot of nice people who believe PETA’s direct-mail and Web nonsense, but PETA wants nothing more than for every domesticated animal to disappear. And they’re quite happy to help the cause by killing animals themselves, putting the needle to 97 percent of the unfortunate animals who end up in PETA’s slaughterhouseshelter.
I don’t support PETA, and I think only sheer laziness explains why the media keeps calling them for comment on any animal issue.
Why is anyone still listening to PETA?
But my view on the Humane Society of the Unites States is a lot more complex. I’ve known and respected many of their staffers for more than a quarter-century, and I’ve on balance agreed with the organization more then I’ve disagreed with them on a wide spectrum of issues. Not to mention: I see in them the ability to recognize a better way, which is very difficult sometimes for a large organization to do.
That’s why I was delighted to read this, on HSUS top dog Wayne Pacelle’s blog:
[Trap, Neuter, Release] is an idea whose time has come, and The HSUS strongly supports this active, humane management strategy.
Our March 2006 policy statement on TNR makes this support plain, but we’ve also made our commitment real by publishing works like Margaret R. Slater’s “Community Approaches to Feral Cats” and Bryan Kortis’ “Implementing a Community Trap-Neuter-Return Program,” designed to help cat advocates succeed with TNR programs in their own communities.
As part of our collaboration with Neighborhood Cats, Bryan Kortis and The HSUS’s Nancy Peterson provide daylong training sessions for TNR advocates through Humane Society University. We’ve also provided financial support to Neighborhood Cats and other groups to advance their work on TNR.
I’m pleased to report, too, that at our Animal Care Expo in May, we’ll debut a new CD/DVD on how to run a good community-wide TNR program.
We are also working hard on SafeCats, a program designed to keep household cats safe and indoors … and on our general spay and neuter work focusing on feline overpopulation. The HSUS has also done its best to bridge the gap with individuals and organizations in the birding and wildlife rehabilitation community, who view cats as an exotic species predating upon birds and other native wildlife. We’ve argued that a two-pronged program that focuses on 1) people keeping their household cats indoors and 2) cat allies and humane organizations managing outdoor colonies through TNR offers the best opportunity for maximizing public participation and helping cats and wildlife.
We’re not alone, of course, and I’m personally grateful to see Alley Cat Allies, Alley Cat Rescue, Neighborhood Cats, Best Friends, the ASPCA, and other groups working so hard on this front. A major challenge like this requires that kind of organizational unity, along with the contributions of literally thousands of volunteer cat advocates on the front lines in communities across the nation.
Here’s the rest. Good for you, Mr. Pacelle. Good for you. Now … care to talk about why laws that mandate the forced sterilization of the pets of responsible, loving pet-owners and reputable, ethical breeders isn’t the answer to getting shelter pets into new homes? Call anytime. You have the number.
Image: Let every cat be as loved as my beautiful little Clara, who is (as you can tell) part of the slight majority of cats who react strongly and happily to catnip!
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Insomnia update: Oh, this is one great story of how much people care about animals! We all need a happy ending now and then.
Update from Christie: Another great story of how much people care. A friend of mine in Florida put out the call for help for Safe Harbor Animal Shelter and Hospital in Jupiter, Florida, which was destroyed in a fire earlier this week. I was out of town and missed his personal fundraising drive, but he raised $1500 in one day. That’s certainly inspiring, but then he told me that as of yesterday, the shelter had raised over $50,000 in donations, and all the homeless dogs (being kept in crates in the parking lot) had been adopted or fostered! They still have cats in need of shelter, so if you can help out and are anywhere near there, please consider giving them a hand.
It would be simpler for my brain if everyone would fall into neat little “good guy” and “bad guy” categories. Shades of grey are challenging, hehe. At least PETA makes it easy for me.
Comment by slt — March 15, 2008 @ 7:50 am
The Randolph Iowa saga might not be over after all. Read down to the end of the article - it seems the mayor didn’t quite get the “R” part of “TNR”:
http://www.desmoinesregister.c...../803150333
Comment by The OTHER Pat — March 15, 2008 @ 8:55 am
Put them down. Who wants cats droppings all over, cat scratch fever, or cats causing wrecks in traffic? Do you have an obsession with seeing the gonads cut out of animals or is this a way to gain more political support from vets by upping their income — and their victims?
Comment by Twilight — March 15, 2008 @ 9:17 am
O geez. As if trapping & neutering them is going to somehow send a message to other stray cats not to come to their town. O yeah and what to do with all the cats after they’re neutered? Duh.
Comment by slt — March 15, 2008 @ 9:59 am
O geez. As if trapping & neutering them is going to somehow send a message to other stray cats not to come to their town.
Actually, as Alley Cat Allies has repeatedly demonstrated based on evidence, it does. When feral populations are moved or killed, new cats move in and fill the vacuum. When those populations are maintained by being sterilized and managed, new cats do not join their ranks, or do so in very low numbers.
Comment by Christie Keith — March 15, 2008 @ 10:45 am
Do you have an obsession with seeing the gonads cut out of animals
Do you have one with killing them?
Comment by Christie Keith — March 15, 2008 @ 10:45 am
Comment by Christie Keith — March 15, 2008 @ 10:45 am
Yeah I know. I was mocking the mayor’s apparent thought process that by simply neutering the cats and not returning them, other cats would not move in to their town.
Comment by slt — March 15, 2008 @ 11:46 am
OH! Sorry!! I’m sleep-deprived.
Comment by Christie Keith — March 15, 2008 @ 4:50 pm
Thumbs up to HSUS for finally coming out strongly in support of TNR. BIG thumbs down on forcing cats to stay indoors. Phooey.
Comment by Susan Fox — March 15, 2008 @ 6:56 pm
Are you serious or am I missing something here?
Comment by Dr. Patty Khuly — March 16, 2008 @ 8:05 am
Sorry! I meant to address Twilight’s comment (I’m sleep-deprived, too).
Comment by Dr. Patty Khuly — March 16, 2008 @ 8:06 am
Methinks Twilight is properly spelled T-R-O-L-L.
Comment by The OTHER Pat — March 17, 2008 @ 10:01 am
Susan Fox- Cats SHOULD stay indoors for their own good and protection of the environment. It may be easier for you to have them use the outdoors as a litterbox, but I can guarantee you that your neighbors don’t appreciate finding cat crap in their gardens and children’s sandboxes.
Comment by swamper — March 17, 2008 @ 3:40 pm
Interestingly, most British cat rescues won’t adopt their animals to people who won’t let them go outside since they believe that it is unnatural and wrong.
And yes, I know about those containment systems that let them “experience” the outdoors and I might use one if one of my cats was sick, injured or old and we needed to keep an eye on them. Otherwise, yuk.
If you’re having problems with your neighbor’s cats, I suggest you talk to them and stop making assumptions about how other people live. It invalidates your argument.
It is also arrogant for humans to think they always know “what is best or good” for animals, wild or domestic. That is one reason why the planet is in the mess it is. I never force my cats to go out. Or my dog for that matter. But the fact that they choose to tells me something about what THEY want.
Confining cats to “protect the environment” is a sad old red herring which shifts responsibility away from where it belongs- humans.
Sorry, swamper, ain’t budgin’ on this one. But I’ve found that small vertical sticks stuck around one’s flower beds will keep cats out, for what it’s worth. Also sprinkling cayenne pepper. Sandboxes can be easily covered up when not in use.
Comment by Susan Fox — March 17, 2008 @ 5:16 pm
“I don’t support PETA, and I think only sheer laziness explains why the media keeps calling them for comment on any animal issue.”
—————————————-
http://www.komotv.com/news/15988507.html
UW investigated for unauthorized monkey surgeries
Story Published: Feb 26, 2008 at 11:15 PM PDT
Story Updated: Feb 27, 2008 at 11:49 AM PDT
SEATTLE — “In a hidden part of the University of Washington campus, hundreds of monkeys live and die for research. They undergo experimental surgeries and tests until their usefulness is over.
The federal government pays the university millions for this research. But a Problem Solvers investigation has uncovered that some of those millions are in jeopardy and the university is under investigation because of unauthorized surgeries on monkeys…..”
http://media.fisherinteractive…..ion_02.pdf
Controversial since at least 2005.
http://www.all-creatures.org/s…..51129.html
Comment by Marie — March 18, 2008 @ 12:33 am
Comment by swamper — March 17, 2008 @ 3:40 pm
I’ve never thought cats are traditionally kept fully or partially outdoors due to litterbox laziness on the part of humans. Rather there is a tradition of cats as mousers and hunters of other unwanted critters. Strictly speaking from personal experience, the cats I’ve had were desperate to go outside by any means available. Like many aspects of pet ownership, individual circumstances dictate the choices an owner makes but to throw a blanket label of laziness out there demonstrates a lack of understanding.
Comment by slt — March 18, 2008 @ 5:13 am
Exactly. I grew up with indoor/outdoor cats. The litter box was the garden, they were house-trained the same way as a dog. I still have trouble with the very idea of keeping a box with cat poo anywhere in the house. However the effects of cats (dogs and ferrets) on flightless bird are not a read herring at all.
It is easy to assume people who disagree are in some way inferior or wrong, but probably they just have a different perspective. I find it interesting how the rhetoric is mobilised to take livestock outdoors, but put cats and dogs indoors without any apparent connecting of the dots. Freedoms come with risks unavoidably attached for all species.
Now we want freedom for chicken but safety for cats. That probably has more to do with our priorities than their essentially different needs (they both need both security and adventure/natural behaviors.)
I do experiments that show how livestock want to be out of small pens and I find farmers very convinced by this data—while pet owners are typically far less interested in their cats sometimes obviously desperate desire to get out from time to time.
As it happens I think the cat thing just depends. Some outdoor environments are quite safe, some are not, and some places are just not good or reporonsible homes for cats. For example if you want to live on the beach and watch the pretty wading birds, an outdoor cat is probably destroying part of the very environment you want to live in. They do predate flightless birds.
Comment by emily — March 18, 2008 @ 9:51 am
No one is suggesting that livestock run willy nilly through the country side. They still need to be contained. My dog would love to run free, but for her own good I keep her contained. The same rules should apply to all domestic pets. And it’s not just the flightless birds that suffer from cat predation, all songbirds and small mammals are vulnerable too.
Comment by swamper — March 18, 2008 @ 2:51 pm
I’m actually in favor of cats being kept inside with access to a safe secure outdoor area. But that’s because when Clara was getting out and going over the fence, all I could think of was peeling her dead body off the blacktop.
The point that’s being made above, however, has nothing to do with livestock wandering “willy-nilly.” It’s about the movement to force agribusiness to stop factory-farming, where animals such as pigs spend their entire lives crammed in stalls so small they can’t even turn around. Such conditions are miserable for these “meat machines” and unsafe for the environment — and us — because of the concentrated excrement that runs off from these places, plus the antibiotics that get into the water from efforts to keep meat animals alive in unnatural conditions.
So, Emily’s point was well-taken, and in fact, it IS interesting that many people are pushing for more natural environments for meat animals at the same time that they’re pushing for un-natural environments for cats. And that these are often the same people!
As I said, I think there IS a solution for cats, and that’s to have access to a yard or area with cat fencing installed. As for the songbird issue, for me it’s concern largely overemphasized.
Yes, cats kill birds (and also vermin we need killed, such as mice and rats). But when we blame cats for songbird deaths, we’re overlooking the fact that the No. 1 threat to birds is … people. In other words, people who eat burgers from cattle grown on clear-cut rain-forest habitat shouldn’t throw stones at cats, nor should those who live in homes in fragile environmental areas.
Again, I would prefer to see cats contained in a way that allows them to live a healthy, engaged and happy life. But to me people who want to kill cats to protect birds are often just cat-haters looking for an excuse to indulge their hatred. I know, because I get hate-filled e-mails from these people every week, and of all the hate mail I get — and it’s a pretty significant amount, you’d be surprised — the cat-haters generally stand out for the amount of spittle that spews onto their computer screens as they discuss all the ways they want cats to die.
Which is, most practically, another reason why my cat doesn’t roam.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — March 18, 2008 @ 3:17 pm
Interestingly, most British cat rescues won’t adopt their animals to people who won’t let them go outside since they believe that it is unnatural and wrong.
And yes, I know about those containment systems that let them “experience” the outdoors and I might use one if one of my cats was sick, injured or old and we needed to keep an eye on them. Otherwise, yuk.
Susan, the UK is almost completely lacking in predators large enough to take a cat—a fox would be about an even match, and that really leaves only the badger, not commonly found in cities. No mountain lions, coyotes, fishers, alligators, crocs, wolves. I have a friend with whom I used to have an ongoing discussion of the “unnatural” practice of keeping cats indoors, which I urged upon her and she resisted—right up until her beloved cat was killed by a fisher. Talk about yuk.
Comment by Lis — March 18, 2008 @ 4:33 pm
Lis, you’re making the same error that swamper did, arguing a general point from a specific case. Christopher would probably know the Latin term. Yoo hoo, Christopher, are you there?
Re predators: most American domestic cat habitats don’t have those you mention either. Now, if I lived where there were coyotes, which I understand will kill any cat they can, I would use the type of cat containment fence that Gina mentions. And don’t forget domestic dogs as cat killers. More than one dog has ended up at our county shelter because it killed a cat, goat or other animal. Dogs can be quite the predators. If they are found near livestock in our county, they can be shot on sight. No need to shovel or shut up, either.
Gina, interesting about the cat haters. Too bad you have to wade through that drek so we don’t have to. If I knew there was a cat hater in our neighborhood, I would take action to contain our cats on our property. If a neighbor came to me with a legit complaint, I would act, also. There are two newish dogs next door, which I don’t know well. We have made sure that the cats can’t get under the fence on that side of the property.
I totally agree with Emily, it depends on the situation. (And also on her comments on factory-farmed animals). We are on a dead-end street on an acre in a rural residential area. We chose it partly because it was safer for the animals and I know that we were fortunate to be able to make that choice.
What I object to is people judging and dissing
other people based on no knowledge of the specific circumstances and their own unexamined assumptions. Not the least because it gets in the way of what everyone who comments here regularly really obviously cares about, which is the animals. You are all so great!
Comment by Susan Fox — March 18, 2008 @ 8:15 pm
Lis, you’re making the same error that swamper did, arguing a general point from a specific case. Christopher would probably know the Latin term. Yoo hoo, Christopher, are you there?
No, Susan, that’s what’s known as an example. It’s not even close to being the only case I know of, of a cat being killed by a predator.
Re predators: most American domestic cat habitats don’t have those you mention either. Now, if I lived where there were coyotes, which I understand will kill any cat they can, I would use the type of cat containment fence that Gina mentions.
So, maybe not quite so “yuk” huh?
I live in an urban area in the northeast, and we have coyotes. Yes, inside the city. We also have hawks—fairly large ones. And opossums. Raccoons aren’t completely danger-free for smaller cats, either.
And don’t forget domestic dogs as cat killers. More than one dog has ended up at our county shelter because it killed a cat, goat or other animal. Dogs can be quite the predators. If they are found near livestock in our county, they can be shot on sight. No need to shovel or shut up, either.
Yes, Susan, the possibility of free-roaming domestic dogs is another excellent reason for keeping your cats safe, and not letting them have the “freedom” to become prey.
What I object to is people judging and dissing
other people based on no knowledge of the specific circumstances and their own unexamined assumptions. Not the least because it gets in the way of what everyone who comments here regularly really obviously cares about, which is the animals. You are all so great!
Uh, Susan, maybe you need to reread your own comments to which I was originally responding.
Comment by Lis — March 19, 2008 @ 4:01 am
Perhaps we are putting too fine a point on it. In the realm of controversial pet issues - such as mandatory neuter, breed specific legislation, no kill shelters vs. 97% kill ‘shelters’, pet food industry killing thousands of pets and still making profits, etc. - individual choices that owners make on letting cats outdoors is not one we should be fighting each other over IMO. There are much larger, more immediate issues we could stand together on and make a difference with all our positive energy.
Comment by slt — March 19, 2008 @ 5:38 am
Except that this comes back to another “adoption issue” which rescue organizations impose on potential adopters. You can’t adopt a cat if you plan to declaw. You can’t adopt a dog unless you have a yard. You can’t adopt a cat unless you promise it will be an indoor only cat. You can’t adopt a cat unless you let it outdoors. And so on.
And as we have discussed here previously, putting TOO many restrictions on potential adopters can keep animals out of homes which can - ultimately - lead to more dead animals. So while I dislike unnecessarily contentious discussions - I do feel its a topic worth exploring.
Comment by The OTHER Pat — March 19, 2008 @ 5:56 am
Good point. Maybe my local shelters are an exception to the rule but they are just happy to get cats into homes here so they don’t get put to sleep. They don’t put restrictions on adopters to my knowledge. I’m sure private groups make their own rules and each area is probably different.
Regardless, of the pet related issues I personally am willing to fight over, this is not one of them.
Comment by slt — March 19, 2008 @ 6:15 am
There’s a big controversy going on right now about a large feral cat colony that’s been living behind a Richmond, VA television station for a number of years. The station manager made quite a large PR blunder. You can read about it in this article.
I work with Save Our Shelters (SOS), a Richmond animal rights organization that’s leading the Trap, Neuter and Return effort that’s now ongoing at the site. You can read updates about the progress at SOS’s new blog here: saveourshelters.wordpress.com.
Comment by Steve Mullen — July 3, 2008 @ 8:10 am