Thank you, Susan, for putting some words of wisdom into this horrible
discussion. You are entirely correct and I am glad to see this information
shared here. Unneutered/spayed feral cats are a much greater threat to
everyone, birds included, than assisted ones. I admire the work of such
people (and have even been known to do some of it myself.)

Margaret Parkinson
U. District. Seattle.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan L. Collicott" <camel at serv.net>
To: "Kelly Cassidy" <lostriver at completebbs.com>
Cc: <pmhansen at drizzle.com>; "TWEETERS" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2002 1:40 PM
Subject: Re: Cats in a Nature Preserve?


>
> Oy, the dreaded cat thread... I hate it, but I must correct this statement
> about Campus Cats. They don't *JUST* return cats.
>
> What they do is: catch cats, neuter/spay them, get all their shots, and
> attempt to have them adopted to an indoor-only household. They also go
> through the emotionally draining process of having to decide which have to
> be euthanized due to disease, health concerns, etc.
>
> If the cat is adoptable, it is held for adoption. If the cat is entirely
> too feral to be adopted, but is healthy, it is returned to the wild with a
> notched ear. And trust me, they have kept some wild, spitting, ferocious
> cats for over a year (or more years!), attempting to condition them to
> humans again, so as not to have to euthanize or put back in the wild.
> Mostly they succeed - some few they simply can't condition back to human
> habitation.
>
> I've seen their setup, and they do all this with their own money and just
> a few donations from the public, and low-cost work from the vets they
> patronize. (And the house doesn't stink of cats, even though they have
> quite a few in there!) All the cats they have for adoption are lovely
> animals with wonderful characteristics, and all are from feral colonies.
>
> If anything, you should be supporting their work, not declaiming against
> it. They would rather see the world without a single feral cat.
>
> Susan Collicott
> Ballard, WA
>
> On Tue, 29 Jan 2002, Kelly Cassidy wrote:
>
> > You're not overreacting, but it's a losing battle. In Seattle, there's
a
> > group (Friend of Campus Cats, I think it's called) that catches stray
cats,
> > neuters them, and releases them were they caught them. There are swarms
of
> > cats at the Montlake Fill, and I think someone feeds them regularly.
> >
> > Loose cat (feral and non) densities are so high in cities, I don't think
a
> > few campaigning birders can reduce them. I believe a town in the
northeast
> > enacted a loose cat law, but had to repeal it because of the public
uproar.
> > People who have loose cats or feed feral cats see themselves as having
the
> > humane high ground. Also, many of them like cats, but dislike cleaning
> > litter boxes. I dislike finding the outdoor litter box when I'm on my
hands
> > and knees in my garden, but I prefer not to start a neighborhood feud
over
> > cat poop.
> >
> > I'm now moving to a place with no close neighbors and NO CATS! Finally,
I
> > may have hope of nesting bluebirds on my property.
> >
> > By the way, this topic is known among longtime tweeters as the "Dreaded
Cat
> > Thread."
> >
> > Kelly Cassidy
> > Pullman, WA
> >
> >
> >
>