Feral Cats: A Heartfelt Issue

by Sarah Linney

The Brevard County Commissioners formed a Feral Cat Advisory Group to review and revise the current policies and programs for feral cats in the county. Don Garretson is the IRAS representative. The cruxes of the debate seem to be the Trap, Neuter, and Return (TNR) Program funded by the county, cat colonies, and the damage the felines can have on native and migrating wildlife. Wildlife in this case can be anything from birds, small mammals, reptiles and amphibians, and insects; basically whatever cats can catch, potentially maim or kill.

Before these meetings were held, the Indian River Audubon Board adopted the position that “Feral cats do not belong in the wild in any form.” National Audubon passed a resolution approved by the Board of Directors on Dec. 7, 1997 Regarding Control and Management of Feral and Free-ranging Domestic Cats that is too long to summarize here.

There have been three public comment meetings held, one in each of the south, central, and north sections of the county. I attended the last meeting on October 9 at the Central Reference Library and it was standing room only. Approximately 43 people had the opportunity to speak. Two-thirds of those folks in some way supported the continuation of the TNR Program. The other third was opposed for a variety of reasons, and a few people were hard to classify as being pro or con. All present were animal lovers: I don’t think anyone wanted mass extermination of cats. It was very educational.

Some of the speakers were actual caregivers for local cat colonies, known as managed colonies. Many issues were addressed: the newness of the program, give it time to work; the cats were better cared for within a colony; overall reduction of litters due to spaying and neutering; little or no growth of colony sizes; and of course rodent control, especially it seemed in the area of the port. Statistics included 3000+ cats fixed in the approximate 3 years TNR has been in effect–many more than Animal Control could do on their own–and a 17% reduction in cats picked up and processed by Animal control during the same time frame.

On the other side of the proverbial coin, speakers expressed concerns for public health and safety and for safety of other pets; decline of wildlife near colonies; and damage to property by roaming cats. The latter was contested as probably free-roaming pet cats (the property owners were encouraged to call Animal Control). Other people were very much for the continuation of the trap and neuter part of the program but very much against the release or return part, saying the cats needed to be enclosed in some fashion. Also of concern is the uniqueness of Florida’s habitats and wildlife and that our state is an important bird migratory flyway (see Doug Stuckey’s article from previous Limpkin).

Education was largely abdicated. Other advice included for the various parties involved, vets, Animal Control and animal shelters, to work together for a sensible solution. The County should develop a plan, a mission statement, and a goal, and then allocate funds; set up accountability with numbers to back up success or failure of programs; and encourage continual feedback.

The Feral Cat Advisory Group will hold three more meetings without public comment and present their findings and recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners in January 2003.