He was the best of toms, he was the worst of toms. America's most popular pet, the domestic cat, has a dirty little secret. While over 90 million cats share our homes, an estimated 60 million are stray or feral and live wild in our neighborhoods, towns, and wildernesses. Surveys show that one quarter of the 90 million pet cats are allowed outside. In total, about 85 million cats are either living wild or have some opportunity to roam out of doors in the United States. Some people consider this a freedom to which the cats are entitled. Others view it as yet another non-native species that humans have introduced into an ecosystem that is ill-equipped to handle the extra burden. Whatever your opinion, the fact is that outdoor cats, owned or feral, pose a significant risk to themselves and native wildlife.
A Brief History Of The Cat
The house cat, Felis catus, was domesticated from the small Asian and African wildcats, Felis silvestris. This likely occurred 4-5,000 years ago, but skeletal evidence suggests it occurred as much as 8,000 years ago. The cat is an ambush predator and feeds on any small vertebrate including rodents, birds, reptiles, and fish. While some feral populations have developed a foraging behavior in places where food is concentrated (dumps, feeding stations), the cat remains a top-level predator and an obligate carnivore requiring a large percentage of its diet consist of meat. The cat has spread to nearly all parts of the world inhabited by humans except the extreme polar areas. Its extreme adaptability has allowed it to persist, with or without humans, in a wide range of habitats.
The Pet Cat
Cats are wonderful pets. They are low maintenance, quiet, and well suited even to small apartment living. Their personalities are endearing and they are excellent companions for everyone from the very young to the elderly. The goal of everyone with a beloved cat is to maximize its quality and quantity of life. Allowing your cat to roam uncontained outdoors is a most efficient way of ensuring that your dear pet dies at a young age. Indoor cats live an average of 12 to 18 years. Strictly outdoor cats have an average life expectancy of one and a half years. Cats that live mainly indoors but are allowed any time outside live an average of 4-5 years. The oldest cat on record lived to 37 years. These facts alone should convince everyone to keep their pet cats indoors.
What accounts for the dramatically reduced life expectancy of outdoor cats? Of course, cars are a constant threat, and not only in the way you would expect. Many cats do get hit by cars, but many others succumb in less obvious ways. Cats in cooler climates are often lured into the invitingly warm engine compartment only to be caught up and killed by the fan or belts when the car is started. Others become reluctant stowaways, carried far away from home by an unsuspecting motorist. Some ill-fated cats are grateful to find a sweet tasting treat dripping from a car only to die a slow death from anti-freeze poisoning.
In addition to cars, outdoor cats must always be on the lookout for dogs, coyotes, wildcats, wolves, and, sadly, even some humans. Some die after exposure to toxic chemicals such as rat poison or mothballs. Others are hanged when their collars get caught in fences or hedges. Still others contract fatal parasitic infections such as heartworms or toxoplasmosis.
The biggest threat to outdoor cats is other outdoor cats. Even if your cat stays in your yard, other cats may come into your yard and expose her to a multitude of debilitating or fatal conditions. Chief among these are feline leukemia and feline AIDS, incurable, slowly fatal viral infections spread from cat to cat. Even if your kitty is fully vaccinated it may still be exposed to such diseases as salmonellosis and ringworm, both of which are also transmissible to humans. And let us not forget Rabies, a viral infection that is untreatable, incurable, and 100% fatal after symptoms develop. Rabies is equally dangerous to humans and animals. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that cats have the highest incidence of Rabies among domestic species, twice that of dogs.
Should your cat avoid these problems, it may still encounter the very real threat of fighting with another cat. Fight wounds present three unique problems to the recipient. First, there is the physical damage caused by the wound. Also, cat-fight wounds almost always get infected resulting in an abscess. A cat with an abscess may become debilitated from fever, become dehydrated, and quickly deteriorate without treatment. Finally, an open wound during the warm months will soon draw flies, resulting in a maggot infestation. The presence of maggots can rapidly change a simple wound to a life-threatening combination of mechanical and biochemical damage ending in septic shock and death.
Inarguably the safest place for your pet cat is indoors-all the time. With a little work and persistence all pet cats can make the transition to indoor life and will live much longer as a result. There are, however, ways to allow your cat to enjoy the outdoors in relative safety. Contrary to popular belief, cats will learn to walk on a leash. Also, there are more and more "outdoor containment systems" being marketed for cats. Among these are the Invisible Fence brand system, a patented radio frequency system that claims a 99.8% "containment rate" for cats. The company provides in-home training and outstanding ongoing customer support. (Reach Lexington's Invisible Fence at 335-1950). Purr...fect Fence (www.purrfectfence.com) is a patented above ground cat enclosure system that can be installed by itself or with an existing fence. KittyWalk Pet Containment Systems are portable, collapsible, connectable assemblies that remind me of HabiTrails for hamsters. They are available from many pet supply Web sites. The best outdoor cat habitats are custom built by pet owners and are much more aesthetically pleasing than commercial products. Many guides and blueprints are available online for the do-it-yourselfer.
The Feral Cat
Feral means "having returned to an untamed state from domestication." Feral cats are individuals, or the offspring and descendants of individuals, that have reverted to a wild state. True feral cats are far more wild than ordinary strays, have an innate fear of humans, and often cannot be tamed unless captured as very young kittens. Ferals live in large family groups called colonies. Aside from lions, Felis catus is the only cat that displays complex social structure.
Experts estimate that the 60 million feral cats in the United States are responsible for killing hundreds of millions of birds and billions of small mammals such as rabbits, squirrels, and chipmunks. Studies conducted in the early 1990s were criticized for, among other flaws, having too small a sample size. However, more recent studies in Florida, California, Hawaii, and other states confirm that feral cats represent a real threat to indigenous wildlife, many of which are threatened or endangered. The impact of feral cats in Australia, New Zealand, and many small pacific islands has been especially devastating due to the more fragile nature of those largely isolated ecosystems.
Some feral cat opponents would have us believe that ferals are vicious predators hell-bent on killing every small creature they can just for the sheer joy of it. At the other end of the spectrum, some feral cat advocates assert that ferals pose no risk whatsoever to wildlife. The truth lies somewhere in the middle. Obviously, feral cats are not vicious predators, just effective ones, but they do exact a toll on wildlife. They are also not the only force exerting pressure on our native fauna. Urban sprawl, habitat destruction, climate change, and the use of pesticides and fertilizers are other factors contributing to the decline of many species.
Feral cats are proficient predators with an extraordinary ability to adapt to nearly any habitat and reproduce at alarming rates. They also have the very real ability to tip the scales of a precariously balanced ecosystem. Ferals have been shown to be directly related to the extinction of several species of beach and cotton mice in Florida and pose a threat to many threatened and endangered species of birds and even hatchling sea turtles. California and Hawaii have similarly compiled much evidence linking feral cats to declining numbers of threatened or endangered mammals and birds. The evidence from university, state, and federal sources continues to mount and the conclusion is that feral cats adversely impact native fauna. The exact numbers may be arguable but the conclusions are not.
Solving the Feral Cat Crisis
Fortunately, we can learn from failed feral cat management strategies as we continue to struggle with this issue in America. Tragically, the situation became so dire in Australia that they instituted an extermination policy for their feral cat problem and discovered the "vacuum effect." When they removed a population of feral cats the result was a vacuum that pulled in a seemingly endless supply of ferals to fill the void they had created.
The most humane method of managing feral cats, for both wildlife and the cats themselves, appears to be Trap-Neuter-Return, commonly known as TNR. Through this method the ferals in an area are humanely trapped, surgically sterilized, and released back into the colony. Kittens and tamable adults are placed in foster homes and eventually adopted. By utilizing TNR protocols, the feral cat population in an area is held static and eventually declines. No new litters are born and there is no vacuum effect to draw in surrounding ferals. After six years of utilizing TNR in San Francisco, the euthanasia rate for all cats had declined by 71 percent. California boasts the country's most successful TNR campaign. A private donation of $3.2 million was made to the California Veterinary Medical Association in 1999 for the express purpose of TNR. By the time the campaign ended, 162,000 feral cats had been sterilized.
TNR is not just a West Coast phenomenon. Alley Cat Advocates (www.alleycatadvocates.org) is a non-profit organization based in Louisville. Home At Last Animal Sanctuary (www.homeatlast.org) is in Salvisa, Ky. Holly's Place Animal Rescue (www.hollys.org) is based in Lawrenceburg. Woodford Humane Society conducts a quarterly "Kitty Cat Round-Up" for feral cats in Woodford County. There are many smaller groups working to do what they can to solve this problem in Central Kentucky. These are non-profit organizations and depend on public support, volunteers, and donations to provide these valuable and necessary services.
Whatever your views on the subject, it is undeniable that cats roaming outdoors pose a danger to native wildlife and themselves. The only option offered from most animal control agencies is to capture and euthanize. This approach is harsh and completely ineffective, especially when applied to feral cats. As always, we must look to ourselves for a real solution that is acceptable from both moral and practical aspects. Pet cats should be spayed or neutered and kept indoors all the time in order to afford them the most comfortable and longest lives possible. TNR protocols should be applied to feral cats to stabilize their numbers, re-home tamable cats, and decrease their numbers over time. These are but a few of our responsibilities as good stewards of our pets, our environment, and our planet.