Feral Cat Problem

[War Chicken]

Can't you trap a bunch and then take them all in one trip?

Or setup your own gas chamber at home. Just about anything is more humane than the slow death they're condemned to by outdoor hoarders.

 

[War Chicken]

Trap a bunch and take them in to animal control at the same time.

 

[moetrout]

A daisy pellet gun won't do it. If it were one of the 1200 fps pellet guns then maybe, but even then I cringe. A .22 would be the right choice. Word of encouragement for your dad.....tell him to get his head out of his behind!


....OK...it's your dad and you live in his house, so his rules. I suggest you don't play fair with dad. Wait for the right opportunity, say the next dead chicken and then CRY YOUR LITTLE EYES OUT GIRL! I'm a dad and us dads don't like to see our little girls cry. Maybe it would work?

I had a neighbor renting the house next to us that moved out and left 7- 8 barn cats. One of the tamer cats was adopted by my other neighbor. I shot a few and I am down to one that has eluded the 12 gauge 00 buck shot twice! It's days are numbered. One that I shot a couple months ago had fur like a coon. That thing was totally wild and acted like it wanted to scratch my face right off! What I don't like about them is I would always see them out back in MY field hunting. I'm a hunter and because of the hawks and coyotes I haven't shot a rabbit out back in a few years. I don't need even more competition from cats. Feral cats are hell on wild life.

Good luck with dad!

 

[Mattemma]

Email and cat shelters.Maybe some would loan traps and then do one pick up to save on gas.Good thing you are doing whether it is putting them down or taking them to a shelter to be euthanised.Some programs will fix them if you don't mind a bunch of strays roaming.

I would try to earn the cash to take them.Maybe you can get loaner traps and take a few at a time.

 

[stormylady]

I have like a kazillion feral cats around here and never had a problem with them messing with any of the full grown chickens but if there were young chicks out there I would watch them closely! I have to actually guard my cat while he was eating to keep my SS girls from pecking him and stealing his food and he is a huge cat! like 15lbs worth of cat and he is scared of the big girls, heck even the silkies scare him, but I have also seen my girls chasing off some of the feral cats too, I have the utmost confidence that my cat wouldn't hurt the chicks but I still have a vision in my head of those cats out there chasing the small wild bird and stalking the squirells and not willing to risk the little ones out there where they can possibly get to them. Sandy

 

[stormylady]

Ok I just don't think I was getting the whole gist of what you were saying, I thought when I read the ttitle and the first post it was mostly that you were more concerned with the safety of your birds , which of course you are, but the over population is obviously a problem for you, right,
How old are you? You drive, and can shoot a gun, do you work?
I don't understand your refusing to "spend your own money" to take the cats to the shelter, but if it were me and my problem, because clearly nobody else wants it to be there problem, you should not expect them to get rid of or pay for getting rid of the feral cats. Get a job or do odd jobs for a little bit of extra money and take them yourself, Then you could sleep at night without all the yowling and fighting going on with the cats. There are alot of options, rescues, AC, different org. that might help you to get the population down. Your Dad obviously doesn't have a problem with you using the car to deliver the cats to the shelter, all you have to do is put gas in it and go, it really doesn't seem that hard to me.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Like Velvet, TNR came to mind, as that wouldn't cost you anything, and is something of a compromise.
Ferals generally are killed at the shelters, so I'm not going to tell you not to go that route. But, if killing them I would:
1. Make sure you pick a humane method
2. Ensure they are indeed feral (as opposed to a lost cat, or an adoptable cat)
If a humane method can't be found, I'd personally find a way to dig up the money, and take them to the shelter in batches as large as possible.

 

[nzpouter]

build yourself a CO2 chamber.

 

[jak2002003]

Think you should make a large covered run for the chickens to live in. Then no problems! Can be really cheep, Just some chicken wire, few pieces of second hand timber for the frame and some nails. You can still let the chickens out to free range when you are there to watch them. That's what I do with my bantams. Then you don't have any worries with the cats getting the birds. You won't have to kill any cats or spend you money or time trapping them. The chickens won't care if they can;t free range as much, and will feel safer I am sure.

I had really bad stray cat problems and tried lots of things to the point I was getting really worked up and the problem was getting worse in my mind. I tried catching them, shooting them, everything. Sometime the population would go down for a few weeks, but some other cats would move back into the area and start having more kittens. Never ending cycle. After I did the run thing, no more worries.

 

[ralleia]

We have issues with feral cats in this area, too. Like your situation, the local animal control isn't very supportive about dealing with them. No, cats are not supposed to run around loose here. But budgets are tight in cities all around, so the city doesn't want to deal with it.

As several people have already pointed out, feral cats make more feral cats, so I am doing everything that I can to nip the problem in the bud. I trap them, and when the local animal control stopped taking them I took them anywhere else that would accept them. It's a nationwide problem--many inexperienced pet owners don't spay/neuter, lose interest in dealing with a pet, and then just dump it in a rural location. Then they become someone else's problem. It is awful.

I looked up the veterinary guide to euthanasia (http://www.avma.org/issues/animal_welfare/euthanasia.pdf), and the methods approved for cats (carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen, barbituates, etc.) looked a bit more complex than I would be willing to tackle.

If you have facilities accepting your feral cats to be humanely destroyed, I would do extra jobs (or appeal to the altruistic nature of your dad) to get them transported there. It's a small price to pay to avoid the additional problems that more feral cats bring.