Misconceptions about feral cats

While reading a friends’ Facebook messages, I found the following comment and wanted to address it:

You’re probably right and please don’t get me wrong on this, I am a HUGE animal lover. Feral cats multiply by the thousands in no time and they cannot be tamed. Not even the kittens. They are probably also posing some kind of threat to the environment. BUT I am NOT for exterminating them. I think they should be spayed/neutered and tagged or micro chipped. But WHO would take on such a huge and costly task

Well, they do multiply, there is no doubt about that.  I think by the thousands “in no time” is a bit of a stretch.   I think this misconception comes from the myth that one female cat and her offspring can produce 420,000 cats in seven years.   This number has long been used to “encourage” people to spay and neuter their pets - we think there are plenty of reasons to spay and neuter your pets without lying to you about numbers - but as you can see it can backfire when people start to think that TNR (trap, neuter, return) is not going to work due to the numbers.

The real number that 1 female cat and all her kittens can produce in 7 years is 100-400.

The difference, you see, is:

1. The original figure was based on one cat delivering 12 kittens a year, with a 20% mortality rate. Dr. Stoskopf ’s studies found six kittens a year, with a 75% mortality rate.
2. The original projection assumed 100% survival of all the cats grown to adulthood for the entire seven years, a percentage that should have triggered red flags from the very beginning.

Source is here.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get your cat spayed or neutered.  There are plenty of health and behavior benefits without spreading misinformation.  A male cats roaming range decreases from 10 miles to 1 mile after neutering, thus leading to less deaths in traffic (better yet, keep them inside).  Spraying is decreased or eliminated (if your spayed kitty is spraying, this is likely to indicate a health or behavior problem and a vet visit is warranted).  Fighting and the spread of disease is reduced or eliminated (and again better to keep them inside anyway).

As far as “they cannot be tamed, even the kittens” - this is absolutely not the case.  The kittens are easy to tame up to about 6 weeks.  After that, they become progressively more difficult - BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE - to tame.  Our fabulous feral cat coordinator has tamed several adult feral cats.  Our South colony is tame to the point that they allow petting by feeders they know.  We do concentrate our efforts on TNR and taming kittens rather than adult cats because we feel it is more helpful to the majority of adult feral cats to TNR them rather than trying to tame them.

As far as threats to the environment are concerned, I’m not sure how to directly address that without knowing which specific threats this person was referring to.  However,  I can’t see how a maintained colony of spayed and neutered cats would be any more threat to the environment than are indoor/outdoor housecats.

As far as who would take on such a huge and costly task, well, we would.  We spay/neuter the cats, have them vaccinated against rabies, and return them to their homes, with the help of volunteer trappers.

Please help us with this project today by contributing to our 30 Spays in 30 Days project:

Here are two of our wonderful former feral kittens (now adult cats) ready and waiting for a loving home:

Simon

Zorro

Here’s our Zorro - hard to believe he was once a hissy little bundle of fur in a trap, slated for death at Austin’s pound:

Pillowcase, scissors and ruler not included with adoption of cat:)