Feral Cats Threatened
Alley Cat Allies seeks to protect the lives and promote the wellbeing of stray and feral cats, and their Trap-Neuter-Return program has gained ground across the United States. After 12 years using the program, Cape May, NJ is one of the success stories.
Cape May’s stray and feral cat population has dropped 80 percent since the program’s inception in the mid-1990s, from around 450 cats to under 100 today. The population continues to decline.
But this historic beach community also shelters the endangered piping plover, a small brown and white fuzzy bird that the US Fish and Wildlife Service believe to be targeted by the cats. The cat protectors argue that people playing Frisbee or riding bikes in restricted areas are as much or more to blame.
Removing the cats to another location historically leaves a vacuum that’s soon filled with new strays--a stable, healthy population of cats keeps sick interlopers away, as well as controlling vermin and potentially keeping other predators of the birds at bay.
Although the city’s mayor, several council members and many residents support the TNR program and want it to continue, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has pressured that the cats be removed. “If the federal government is allowed to overrule local support for Trap-Neuter-Return, most of the cats in Cape May will be caught and killed,” warned Becky Robinson, president of Alley Cat Allies.
”The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is threatening to pull the plug on the beach-sand replenishment program for 2008 if the city will not agree to end its groundbreaking and progressive Trap-Neuter-Return program,” said Robinson, “Such a move would be devastating for the Cape May community, which relies on its beaches to draw tourists each year.”
They’re voting today, March 4, on the decision. Visit www.alleycat.org to sign the online petition to save the cats of Cape May.
For more information, see Petside's articles Feral Cats and When Cats Kill
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