Feral cats...

[bobbi-j]

You have to protect your birds. Whether that means trapping and bringing the cats to the pound, eradicating them, or something else. After all, if no one is going to be around to feed them, they could starve to death. It would be kinder for them to be put down quickly and humanely, rather than let them suffer that way. Or, who knows? If you don't have cats of your own, having a couple of them around could be beneficial as far as keeping the rodent population down. (If they're not threatening your chickens, that is) You have to make the choice as to what to do with the feral cats that come your way.

 

[bertman]

Get Miss Smartwad's home address, trap the feral cats, deliver them to her doorstep so she can take care of them.

People like her NEVER learn until someone teaches them a lesson.

Sad but true.

 

[sourland]

Feral cats whether spay, neuter, release or not can serve as a reservoir of rabies as well as serve as a danger to your birds. A local farmer had a colony of neutered cats dropped off anonymously at his barn. Since he was a good guy, he took care of them. After he was attacked and bitten by one of these cats, all were trapped. 2 tested positive for rabies. I would have no problem ignoring the ill tempered woman and euthanizing the feral cats and any others that showed up.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

...This woman got all indignant, said that HER mother use to feed them all the time then proceeded to tell me their names. I smiled politely and asked "So your going to take them when you sell the house?" Daughter said of course not, and did I know that feral cats are protected in VA from being trapped, that they are spayed/neutered and part of the house. ...

Sounds to me like the woman said that her mother acknowledged a responsibility towards or ownership of the cats. Since the daughter (presumably) inherited all her mother's assets, she inherited the cats. Leaving them there, and also failing to provide food and water is then the equivalent of abandoning them and cruel neglect, and is likely a misdemeanor; if there are a lot of cats, it may add up to a low level felony.​

 

[DvanderSlik]

If the cats have been Trapped/Neutered/Returned (which means sterilized by a veterinarian) they should be vaccinated for rabies as well. If you get rid of them, just wait a few months and more will come to fill the space:

Eradication is only a temporary fix that sacrifices animals' lives unnecessarily, yet yields no psitive or beneficial return.

Feral cats survive in the wild. They're able to hunt on their own and do not always necesarily need some to feed them.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Simply put, eradication is only a temporary fix that sacrifices animals' lives unnecessarily, yet yields no psitive or beneficial return.

There is no "positive or beneficial return" to having feral cats around.

Eradication works quite well, and saves the lives of native species​

 

[nzpouter]

simple logic why tnr doesn't work... those cats that fail to take over an area will either die or went on to colonise other area.... either way. it's still animal lives lost, either to failure of the predator to find a hunting territory or prey animals to successfull colonisation....

in short, TNR is just one of those feel good action that people who refuses to see the bigger pic try to push....

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Eradication DOES work. The same for cats as it does for rats. For feral cats (as in NOT someone's pets) it's the way to go.

 

[Mattemma]

I would just ignore her.Hopefully the house will sell soon. I would trap and remove all cats regardless of whether or not they have tags on.Any cat roaming in my yard gets a trip to the pound.

 

[CariLynn]

Sorry I didn't get back to this sooner, busy busy when one has a farm. As of yet, we haven't trapped any of the feral cats, one black one does roam around our place and has walked over my husbands vehicle, leaving foot prints. The husband did see this one again yesterday morning and got to be very familiar with a bb gun and disappeared into the woods, so hopefully it will stay there.

The daughter I leave be, I am polite, it isn't in my nature to mouth off something snarky or rude, and I take into consideration she just lost her mother a few months before so who knows if her attitude has anything to do with her grief? She doesn't live in the state so hopefully once the estate is done she too will be leaving and I won't worry about getting a call from Animal Control about the roosters or my husband shooting.

As for the cats, I always try to live by the live and let live rule, we did put up a brand new coop yard with way more room and heavier gauge fencing too. They can't get in this unless they dig or climb. So not sure if we will continue to try to trap them or just let them be. I do appreciate everyone's opinion and views, it always helps to hear others and what they will do, within reason.