Any ideas about getting rid of feral cats?
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at
8:47 am
Animal control will not mess with it, they are decimating the rabbits and other small animals on my property as well as going after my chickens. Took out 3 yesterday, but I’d rather not have to wipe them out, just make em go away.
I can’t put out poison, the animals I want to save would also be drawn to it. I was wondering if coyote urine spread around would help.
Filed under: Cat Behavior
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we had a ranch that had 12000 chickens. We had a horrible problem with feral cats. I mean in the hundreds and they were reeking havoc on our livestock. We tried everything. With 7 brothers, we got together with a neighbor who was native american (politically correct way of saying he was indian). He taught us to make bows and arrows. We used those to good end, but still didn’t make a dent in the population. We were also using live traps, but no one would take the cats once we caught them. So, he bought us single shot .22 rifles and we went to town on em. Trust me, if you don’t kill em off, you will never get rid of them. We had a friend who worked at the zoo. He gave us samples of african lion and tiger urine. We sprinkled it around and it didn’t do anything except freek out our sheep.
I’ve been there and done that. I tried trapping them with limited success. Once I had one in the trap, the question was what to do with it. Do you kill it or take it somewhere else and let it become someone else’s problem? If you kill it, then why bother to trap it in the first place? Why create a problem for some one else by dumping it somewhere else? My solution was to simply shoot them. I’d put out some bait and shoot them when they came to it. These things are no more pet cats than a bobcat is a pet cat. They are wild animals that came from domestic pets. They have gone feral and now are wild animals. You just have to control them in the same way you would control an overpopulation of any wild animal. I guess you could turn some dogs loose in the woods to get rid of them but before long, you would have feral dogs to contend with. Just shoot them and bury them.
Yep…get the rifle.. if thats doesn’t work…the shotgun… and if not that… you can most likely find small nuclear weapons on the internet…. BUT, I once had the same problem….. and I made the mistake of doing what your attempting to do….. I killed everyone of them…. yeeeeehhhaaa I did it…. Then within about three months, I was overrun with mice, kangaroo rats, pack rats and even birds… So, what did I do… I went out and got me some more cats….. and I won’t make that mistake again…… I can handle a few running around alot more than having the mice and rats chew up everything they can get to and having to worry about rodent droppings everywhere… If I had it to do over again… all I do, is what I am doing now…. trying to make them even wilder, so they hide and won’t be seen whenever we are around…. Out of sight, out of mind…..
You can trap them and bring them to an animal shelter where they’ll put them down humanely. If you’re going to shoot them aaaa…. could I come to visit? A 10/22 and a good low light scope a brick of ammo. And people ask if there’s a Heaven.
I read an article about feral cats, in some wildlife magazine, awhile back. The guy that wrote it said that the best way is with an FMB(fast moving bullet). I know you don’t want to kill them, but if you take them somewhere else, they will cause the same problem, only not at your place, unless they come back.
Rereleasin feral cats is at best irresponsible and depending on your area highly illegal at worst
Using Anti Freeze is the most despicable idiotic suggestion that could be made
These are feral animals that wreak havoc on the environment
They are not a part of the natural chain and serve no useful purpose
If you don’t have the heart to kill them, no shame in that, then trap them and take the to whatever passes as the pound in your area
If you don’t have the heart to shoot them then you can build a CO2 chamber fairly cheaply that will kill them quickly and painlessly
My recommendation would be to shoot them and supplement that with traps
They are fairly smart, as most animals are, and will quickly learn the unsafe shooting times and avoid the area then
The traps will work at night when you are asleep
I also agree with leaving a couple
The few you don’t get will generally be the smarter ones though
Who will give birth to smart babies
There is also a program in many areas where a group will spay or neuter the animals, notch their ears to identify them and re-release them
Looks like you’ll have to shoot them.
Get your self a real good air gun, pellet and go after them.
+1 on the terrier. In fact, the only thing better than a terrier is two terriers. I recommend either the smooth hair fox terrier or the wire hair fox terrier. You will be amazed at how a pair will work feral cats. Only problem is, when they get rid of the cats, they will start chasing the rabbits.
the only likely suggestion is getting either a pellet gun or a crossbow and getting rid of them or a big doberman aouto solve ure problem
you may just have to shoot them,by the time you trap them all,all the small animals on you place may be gone.
The cats are in the area because there is a food source that can support them.
If you kill any of them or remove them, more will just come in and replace them. They can breed very quickly so you will just end up with more and more dead cats as the months go by.
The only thing that MIGHT give the rabbits a break would be to trap and have the ferals sterilized so that their are less kittens to feed. If there are less lactating females, the caloric demands will be greatly reduced and they will kill less rabbits and be less likely to go after your chickens.
My guess is that you don’t have a feral-fix program in your area so that leaves you with no practical solution other than creaing a more effective barrier around your chickens.