There are 80 million feral cats in the United States, according to some estimates, and the question of how best to curb over population on the local level has been a real issue in Rockbridge County. Cat advocates are alarmed by the high rate of euthanasia at the County shelter, arguing for a more humane approach. WMRA reporter Jessie Knadler heads to Buena Vista, ground zero of the cat controversy, to find out more about this new approach and whether it actually works.
What does a County do when it's overwhelmed by homeless cats? That's what many Rockbridge County residents are asking themselves as the County grapples with a cat crisis. The conventional approach is to round up the cats, bring them to the local shelter where they'll all be spay/neutered and hopefully adopted. It's a nice thought. Except it doesn't happen that way.
At the Rockbridge County SPCA, which serves the cities of Buena Vista and Lexington, 68 percent of the more than 1,200 cats brought to the shelter last year were euthanized-nearly 7 of every 10 cats were put down. The Rockingham-HarrisonburgSPCA's numbers were just as dismal. The Augusta County shelter, meanwhile, had a feline kill rate of only 7 percent.
The Rockbridge County numbers alarm residents like Jo Ann Abell. She presented the statistics to a packed Board of Supervisors meeting last month.
JO ANN ABELL:I think our shelter is operating on an archaic model and they're not educating themselves on all the ways they could be helping cats.
Abell and her supporters want the RockbridgeSPCA to be more aggressive about seeking funding for high volume, low cost spay/neuter programs.
ABELL:Augusta County pound just recently got a $50,000 grant from the PetcoFoundation to help fund their spay/neuter program.
These funds have allowed the Augusta County shelter to streamline the process and make it less expensive than at the RockbridgeSPCA.
Tara Rodi is the executive director of the Rockbridge shelter. She's aware the euthanasia rate for cats is high, but she says it's also because hers is the only shelter in the county. Augusta County has two.
TARA RODI:When you get 200 cats in one month that's a lot. We get the feral cats in. They're not in the best shape because no one is taking care of them. They might have three teeth in their head or they've got a horrible ring worm situation. It's never easy. It's not a fun part of the job.
Feral cats are also aggressive. They bite. They scratch. The can attack employees.
RODI:We are working in June hopefully to put together a low cost spay/neuter program that will allow some low income families to utilize funding that will be there.
There is another way to deal with cat overpopulation but it's unconventional and kind of controversial.
MARY HUFFMAN:Possum! Leo! Sundance! Blackie! There's Possum. Hey, baby. C'mon baby!
This is where Mary Huffman from Buena Vista comes in. Buena Vista, which has a lot of poverty, is home to the biggest known cat colony in the area. More than 100 homeless cats had taken over parts of Glen Maury Park.
HUFFMAN:You could see them. They were running everywhere, literally everywhere.
It's called Trap, Neuter and Release, or TNR. Instead of killing the cats, Mary takes care of them.
HUFFMAN:What I feed every month is probably $120 to $150 per month is what it costs me to feed. It's because I love my community. I love my city so much and my park so much that I'm willing to do this part.
Mary teamed up with the cat rescue group Cat's Unlimited to trap, vaccinate and alter all the cats in the colony. Their ears were notched to signify their status. The cats were then returned to the park to live the rest of their lives in the great outdoors.
HUFFMAN: A few people in [City] Council would like to see all the cats gone from the park but that's not realistic.
There is no question that TNR is more humane if the fixed cats are returned to a caretaker. But there is some debate whether TNR on its own is effective as a population control. Cats simply reproduce too quickly. An unfixed female can give birth to five litters every year. And, Tara Rodi points out, what's to stop Animal Control from picking up those fixed cats and bringing them right back to the shelter?
RODI:Do you know how many nicks and scratches and torn spots are on their ears? A bunch. Because they get in fights. So it's hard to tell whether it's a notch because they were spay/neutered or is this because of a fight?
For TNR to be truly effective it needs to be combined with aggressive adoption strategies. Mary Huffman is all about this. Under her care, the size of her colony has dropped from 102 to 19, all fixed but one.
HUFFMAN:I now have people who run from me at the grocery store. They're afraid I'm going to ask them to take a cat.
