Catting Around
Sunday at 5am I was setting up traps in an Atlantic City apartment complex to catch feral cats so that they could be checked for diseases, vaccinated and spayed or neutered. It was all part of the Feline Frenzy TNR (trap neuter release) organized by the Alley Cat Allies organization of Maryland to help control the feral cat population in the city. As the sun rose, the cats came out while the seagulls checked out the action.
This was my first time volunteering for Alley Cat Allies, who have been doing a great job controlling the cat population along the Atlantic City Boardwalk for the past six years. Saturday afternoon I learned how to bait and set the traps, but our efforts in the afternoon were not as successful. It turns out that mad dogs and kitty cats don’t go out in the noonday sun. (Pictured is a cat who was spayed; her kittens will be found new homes.)
Volunteers Alex and Herb came all the way from Reading, Pa. to participate. Alex has her own rescue group in Reading and went down to New Orleans to help with animal rescues during the Katrina aftermath. She taught me a year’s worth of feral cat dos and don’ts Saturday afternoon. Lisa, from Raleigh, N.C., is from the Humane Society, and volunteered as part of her East Coast vacation. She was going to New York City next. Amanda is a volunteer who has helped trap the cats on the Boardwalk.
While we were trapping, the frenzy got in full swing at the Best Friends Animal Hospital at the Festival Mall in Mays Landing where close to 100 cats will be spayed or neutered by Dr. Suzanna Brown and her staff by the end of today, then returned to their colonies.
Some people prefer that feral cats are caught and euthanized but that isn’t necessary. By making sure the cats don’t reproduce, the cat population is stabilized.
An article in the Press yesterday (Sunday) brought up a current dispute about endangered birds and the feral cat population in Cape May. A member of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was quoted as saying that “Cats are not native to North America.”
Yeah, pal, and the people that brought them over to America, namely our founding fathers, aren’t native to North America either. I hope that the U.S. Wildlife Service and the city of Cape May can find a solution that doesn’t involved killing the cats.
I want to thank Elena and Jessica and all the other hard-working members of Allied Cat Allies for allowing me to participate in this wonderful program. I’m going to put my newly learned cat trapping skills to further use by volunteering for the regular TNR Boardwalk program.
