neighbors lets cats roam, attracting feral cats?
Where I live there is no rule about cats not being allowed to roam outside. My new neighbors across the street let their unspayed females out every day and it’s been attracting a lot of feral cats to our street. I’ve had far too many near accidents with a stray cat or my neighbor’s cat on the road. The feral cats are disgusting and are known to have fleas, ticks, and internal parasites. They poop everywhere on my yard so I’m afraid my yard might is becoming contaminated with worms. My dogs hate the cats, because they lounge on my front porch and the males "spray" on our yard. The cats scream and meow all night and get into the trash all the time.
I’ve already talked to my neighbors about their cats, but they won’t change their minds about it and believe cats should be allowed to roam. There is no form of animal control where I live. Is there any way I can get rid of all these feral cats without hurting them or without the help of my neighbor who has caused all this trouble?
Filed under: Cat Behavior
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Yes, you can trap them in a trap. You may be able to rent one from the shelter or an exterminator. It is called da cat trap. Its a long metal cage, you usually place some canned food in there, and BANG ! The trap goes off, cat is in place. You pick up trap and take cat the shelter or just relocate it. You could even take them in to a local hospital, have them fixed, and release them. If you do that though, I recommend for the vet to tip its ear off, that way you know if it been fixed or not.
I agree with travisan answer – trap them and take them to a no-kill shelter if possible. Also look into a spay/neuter discount program in your area to recommend to the neighbors. I’m sure that they would not appreciate it if you let your dogs run around pooping in their yards and chasing and possibly killing their cats. It’s unreasonable for the neighbors not to understand this and with the huge number of unwanted dogs and cats that are destroyed in this country any animal owner should have their animals spayed and neutered. It’s the responsible thing to do.
Is there any local group that does TNR? Getting the females fixed will allow the other strays to go back to their territories and leave your area alone. Right now it’s the unspayed female cats that are the main draw.
Our shelter does TNR on strays free of charge. They get ear tipped, microchipped, spayed/neutered, vaccinated, de-flead and de-wormed. I get them back and release them. No more kittens, and the strays keep other strays out of their territory here. I feed and water them to keep them healthy (a reliable food source always keeps animals healthy).
If you can catch the neighbor’s cats and get them fixed without his permission (since he’s not taking care of them), then that would solve your problem.
Fleas come in via squirrels anyway, so don’t blame the cats on that. Ticks are in the environment regardless. Internal parasites are gotten from the prey animals–they don’t originate with the cats themselves, so you’re again looking at environmental issues that the cats are not instigating. Don’t blame those on them, your local wildlife has a hand in all this, which includes possums, raccoons, squirrels and skunks.
The screaming, meowing and spraying stop when there’s no females around to mate with. Everyone goes back to their original territory. Your focal point is the female cats–get them fixed. See if there’s a feline rescue in your area, they can maybe piggy back the females with the next batch that goes in for spaying.