PRESS RELEASE
ANIMAL CRUELTY: FERAL CATS/KITTENS
May 12, 2019
It’s a sad day for the feral cat population in San Francisco.
Animal Care and Control (ACC, the San Francisco city animal shelter), as well as SF/SPCA, its partner organization, are instituting regressive policies that will result in increased numbers of homeless cats wandering the streets. There will also be hundreds of dead kittens who could have been saved and adopted (as they would have been under the long-standing policy which is now being overturned).
For several decades San Francisco has been a beacon of humane and enlightened practices regarding the management of its feral cat population. SF/SPCA has maintained a dedicated cadre of experienced volunteer trappers to assist the citizenry with the TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) program. SF/SPCA also maintained, until a few weeks ago, a feral cat “nursery,” in which captured mom cats could raise their kittens in comfort and safety until weaning age (about 6 weeks).
TNR is recognized world-wide as the humane and effective way (the opposite of “catch and kill”) to keep feral cat populations from increasing exponentially. Adult cats are normally trapped near their feeding station, spayed/neutered, and returned to their colonies after a brief recovery period. This helps to stabilize the colony’s population by reducing and eventually eliminating the unchecked breeding that goes on in less enlightened communities.
A vital subset of TNR is being tragically terminated here in The City: that subset is the capturing of feral nursing moms with litters of very young and fragile kittens.
A typical scenario used to be as follows:
1. Resident suddenly discovers mother cat and litter of kittens on property.
2. Resident calls SF/SPCA or ACC to report the discovery.
3. SF/SPCA or ACC immediately notifies volunteer trapper, who contacts resident.
4. Trapper works with resident to capture mom and kittens in humane trap.
5. Mom and kittens are placed in volunteer foster home or SF/SPCA nursery.
6. At 6-8 weeks of age weaned kittens are placed for adoption at SF/SPCA or ACC.
7. Mother cat is spayed at no cost to the resident and returned to her colony.
There are variations on this scenario of course but the results of the TNR program are that kittens are saved and adults who remain feral no longer procreate. The concept has long been recognized worldwide by animal behaviorists as the sensible and humane way to manage feral cat populations.
Sadly, SF/SPCA and ACC are implementing new policies which actually prohibit their employees from contacting trappers (STEP 3 in the above scenario). SF/SPCA has also shut down their feral cat nursery, which enjoyed tremendous success during the years it was in operation. The executive leadership of both organizations (which collaborate in many areas) have somehow become convinced that the human and feline populations are better served by leaving feral cats with nursing kittens in place until they are old enough to be weaned (about 6 weeks). This flies in the face of decades of experience which have demonstrated the following:
• Kittens in the wild are often in extreme danger from disease, predation and moms abandoning them.
• The best way to capture a mom with very young, nursing kittens is to use the kittens as “bait” to lure mom into the trap.
• Waiting until kittens are older carries a high risk of never finding them again because they have wandered off or the mother has moved them.
• Residents (many of whom don’t like cats) will often not put up with the wait and will be tempted to get rid of the kittens in a cruel manner.
• Feral kittens become much harder to capture when they are older than three weeks; at that age they are extremely fast and have learned from their mom to run and hide if they see a potential predator (e.g., a human).
• Feral kittens who do manage to survive in the wild to adulthood will then contribute to an explosion of more kittens; females can get pregnant at the tender age of SIX MONTHS, and the vicious cycle continues.
The strange thing about these policy changes is the absence of any valid information as to why they are even being considered; the existing system has worked extremely well for decades. When pressed for a reason WHY they are suddenly going to leave these helpless kittens in the wild to die, SF/SPCA and ACC staff usually give some form of the following:
· TOO MUCH STRESS ON THE MOTHER CAT IN A FOSTER HOME, or
· VAGUE REFERENCE TO IRRELEVANT STUDIES AND WEBINARS
The first of these “reasons” ignores the obvious stress a mother cat is subjected to when left in the wild; there is the possible loss of kittens to disease and predation, as well as her frequent need to forage for food, thereby exposing herself to vehicular traffic and other dangers. These are far higher stress inducers than a temporary loss of freedom while she is raising her kittens in a safe, warm, quiet foster home or nursery with a reliable food supply.
The second is totally unsubstantiated. The webinars and studies that have been cited deal with many aspects of wildlife management (hazards to birds, for instance), but nothing relevant to the question addressed here. A possible explanation: authors of the webinars and studies have never conceived of a community like San Francisco, which has the luxury of numerous volunteer trappers, foster parents and rescue groups that are capable of enabling the enlightened policies we have enjoyed here for over 20 years.
The decision-making process within SF/SPCA and ACC has been highly secretive. Volunteer trappers, foster parents and various concerned rescue groups have certainly NOT been consulted, even though they are the people most knowledgeable of how things really work at the grass roots level. Rumors swirl around about what or who is driving the new policies, but getting actual information regarding these huge steps backward is extremely difficult.
What we members of the volunteer and rescue community ask is that these policy changes be dropped. Kitten season has been raging for over a month now, and we need to do the right thing by both our human and feline populations. Specifically, we want SF/SPCA and ACC to continue doing what has been successful in the past, and to ensure that step three in the above scenario (put volunteer trapper in touch with concerned resident) is carried out IMMEDIATELY when a call comes in about kittens. Where feral kittens are concerned any delay, even one day or a few hours, can be the difference between life and death.
Volunteers and the rescue community would also like to see SF/SPCA continue operation of their feral nursery, and canvass their dozens of foster volunteers to see who might be interested in fostering feral moms with kittens. ACC has several fosters who do this and can provide appropriate training, but for some unknown reason SF/SPCA does not place feral moms with kittens in foster homes.