How does one get rid of feral cat colonies?

[wendykh]

I have two groups. One in my back parking lot, and a new one has nested under my front porch.

I really wouldn't give a damn, except it smells absolutely horrific. These are large colonies, and there are lots and lots and lots of feral cats in my neighbourhood in general. Put it this way, the neighbours were elated to see we had dogs when we moved in since that way maybe the cats would disperse a bit. And they have, some, particularly in the common back parking lot where I can let Ruby patrol.

Today, however, I noticed The Odour from the front. I took Ruby out there just a bit ago hoping she'd pee and ward off the cat. No, instead, she found them burrowed under the porch and it was all I could do to keep her from going under there and getting into it with them. These are adult male strays, btw, not moms and kittens.

It is now winter in my corner of the world. Real, serious, heavy, cold, snow laden winter. If I can smell the cat piss while inside my house now, how bad will it be in summer? I am betting BAD. So how to I get rid of this? I'd let Ruby go to town and give them hell, but honestly I'm afraid of her getting hurt. I'm not worried about the back since they'll just run and she'll chase, but there's no way I'm letting a chow bull go wrestle with male feral cats under a porch. Oh hells no.

Ideas please?

Oh and note: my city does not give two shits about stray cats. They will not come get them, they will not TNR, they will not euth them, and to be honest they probably would not give a damn if I shot them, but I'm a bit better than that I'd like to think. I'd ideally like to spray some sort of scent or plant. If all else fails, I'll call the renegade vets I know who will TNR them. But that's a huge, huge, huge job they'd have in front of them.

Comments

[primaflora.livejournal.com]

You sure there are no cat rescue people in your city? I find that hard to believe, there are crazy cat people like me all over the place ;) Call your vet friends and ask them.

And do not let your dog loose on them. That would be all kinds of wrong. For them and her. It's unlikely that one dog would be enough to drive off an established colony and you don't want her to hurt a cat that then limps off to die in the snow. Those bad boys need to be enthuthanised probably as they would be too feral to rehome.

There's no plant or spray on the planet which will drive off a colony of cats.

[primaflora.livejournal.com]

And another thought -- if she becomes a cat killer and kills someone's pet Fluffy who is loved and well cared for, that is not going to be nice to deal with.

[wendykh.livejournal.com]

that is my biggest fear really. I may not be into cats, mainly because they make my family members bordering on deathly ill in one case and deathly ill in another, but I don't want to have to go tell some poor soul their cat became Ruby's snack. That would suck.

[wendykh.livejournal.com]

Oh we have cat rescues, but they won't go near ferals since the abandoned domestic cat issue is so huge here.

The one which USED to do ferals has now switched to domestic, since they realized the problem was due to people letting their un-neutered cats run wild outside (hence problem 1).

I am seriously scared she'd be hurt by the cats. I know cats were given claws for a reason ya know? Plus if she did hurt a cat, well, I'd feel bad. Even if it is a cat, it's still a living creature.

I think my whole 'hood needs to adopt dogs or something. See now my neighbours to the west, they don't have this problem. They have three dogs that are outside patrolling their back yard all the time.

I was thinking maybe it was previous tenants had a cat that was not litter trained, but we have brand new floors in here. And the smell is the absolute worst when right outside the front and back doors.

Maybe it will be better in spring actually, since most people in this area have at least one if not two or three dogs, and we'll all be able to walk them properly again then.

[primaflora.livejournal.com]

::boggle:: those people are fucking stupid. You need to address both the domestic issues and the feral issues because there is not much point in having neutered indoor domestic cats while the feral populations go out of control. Ferals don't stop breeding unless they are PTS or neutered FFS! Rehoming ferals is difficult too. Sid's an exferal cat but he was definitely not born feral because he is so friendly and cuddly. At some stage of his early life, he was a pet.

Vinegar is a very good and cheap stench neutraliser. It is not a particularly good preventative but it will drop the stench to a more livable level.

Q is moving to a point where we will have to register and neuter cats and I am hoping for a curfew. The shelters are putting down a lot of animals and when I was trying to surrender Jack for adoption, I ended up keeping him because he would have had 24 hours to find a home.

[wendykh.livejournal.com]

am I crazy or didn't I read somewhere once that feral cats wreaked havoc on Australia's ecosystem?

Sadly, there's just not the resources here. :-(

http://www.spcamontreal.com/apprenez1.php?lg=en

[primaflora.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah cats are a HUGE problem here and in NZ. Huge. NZ used to have the world's largest population of species of flightless birds. Extinct now. I once stole a mother cat and her 5 kittens and rehomed them because my idiot neighbour was planning to take them to Queenstown and let them loose in the bush!

I'm totally behind cat registration and compulsory spaying and in the long run I think cats should be eradicated from Australia and NZ or at the very least they should have to be indoor pets. 2 of mine are indoor moggies and Sid is outside for a short period of the day but always in at night.

[wendykh.livejournal.com]

I have never, ever understood how it became socially acceptable to let cats wander outdoors anywhere. If I let my dog do that people would shoot her and feel justified.

[primaflora.livejournal.com]

Cultural difference I think after watching the battles on USian boards about indoor cats. Indoor cats were unknown when I was growing up unless they were pedigree. Cats lived outdoors ergo cats preferred to live outdoors and it was cruel to lock them up.

[wendykh.livejournal.com]

I don`t think it's necessarily "cruel" either way, but what pisses me off is people basically keeping a cat alive through ownership, then letting it wander to piss and shit and tear up everyone else's property. Can I charge them for the landscaping and smell removal? :-P

Before you do anything...

[cloudkucooland.livejournal.com]

Figure out what role the cats play in the local ecosystem. When they started removing cats from Shreveport the rat and roach populations exploded--which lead to a new round of cats... What are the cats eating that allows such colonies to be sustained?

Re: Before you do anything...

[wendykh.livejournal.com]

you know, this is a good point. I live three blocks from a canal (sorry for the monstrosity).

That bridge, like I said, is three blocks from here. My neighbourhood is formerly super industrial converting to working class family/up and coming gentrificationing but still staying working class.

I'm thinking rats. Big fucking scary ass rats.

Re: Before you do anything...

[primaflora.livejournal.com]

Feral cats are pretty low on the feeding chain and quite frankly I'd rather be dealing with poisoning rats than dealing with unneutered ferals.

Re: Before you do anything...

[guest29.livejournal.com]

Do you mean to poison rats? Please don't :(

I'm not a rat lover, but if the cats are hunting them, they will get secondary poisoning and dying from poison is a horrible, horrible way to die. You get massive internal bleeding and the blood will come out of any body holes and...it's just very awful.

I don't have a solution to the issue since where I am, there are a few cat rescues who do TNR, but for any being to die from rat poison is just inhumane.

:(

[tygre.livejournal.com]

Man. Well, my idea was on a feral cat rescue -- we had a BAD problem with them on my undergrad campus, and eventually a rescue started up that trapped, neutered, then re-released the cats.

Far as driving them away, setting dogs on them won't work, I think -- many cats are not all that scared of dogs -- or at least, not enough to permanently relocate.

What does it look like they are feeding on? Is all of the trash locked up? Securely locked dumpsters with no trash left outside might help. Sealing up the under-porch area would likely help too (remove the home area). Of course, these are stopgaps. The best way to deal with the smell is enzymatic cleaners.

I very much love cats, and my first thought is "put those poor miserable things down". I don't let my cats outside for their own safety.

[wendykh.livejournal.com]

the trash thing is what I find really odd. It's not locked up, but it's in plain plastic bags, so you'd notice if it were ripped into! And it's not... Weeeeeeeird.