I figured out today that the black cat we've been seeing around is really two different black cats. Don't get me wrong, they are adorable little things, but they are also a bit of a pest. We've found them on our roof and all, too.
Mothballs worked for a time to keep them away, but they're back. I don't want to hurt that cats, but I also don't want them on our property. I also know my family isn't the only one having a problem with them, as I've seen neighbors trying to get them off their property.
Any suggestions? Animal control is a last resort.
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Don't underestimate physical chemistry. It's kind of like chocolate... Very tempting, very bad as a sole diet, yet I wouldn't want to live without it, either.
Taking them in is always an option, but, barring that, calling around and seeing if anyone would like them could work. Maybe posting something on the ever-useful Craigslist? If worst comes to worst, call the local ASPCA and ask them for advice .
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Well, I would consider accurate shot placement a humane way, but I have a feeling that's not what you were going after.
First, make sure to remove all sources of food. This includes sealing up outdoor trashcans/dumpsters, then get some of those have-a-heart traps and bait them up. When a cat gets caught, you want to take it quite a few miles from where it was caught. I forget the minimum suggested distance (I want to say 10-15 miles), but I'd have no problem driving the next county or two over to release them.
First, make sure to remove all sources of food. This includes sealing up outdoor trashcans/dumpsters, then get some of those have-a-heart traps and bait them up. When a cat gets caught, you want to take it quite a few miles from where it was caught. I forget the minimum suggested distance (I want to say 10-15 miles), but I'd have no problem driving the next county or two over to release them.
A very definite "yes" to restricting food sources and humanely trapping them, and just as definite a "no" to releasing them elsewhere. The way to deal with stray cats is to catch them and turn them over either to the local SPCA or to an animal rescue outfit (just Google "animal rescue" and your location). In some cases, you may be able to borrow traps for this purpose from animal control or the SPCA. Because if you simply let them be, or release them elsewhere, very shortly there are going to be many more stray cats (my sister took in a young stray female once, and when it began to get suspiciously round, she went online to find out how to tell if a cat is pregnant. The response she got was: "If the cat is an unspayed female who has been outdoors, she is pregnant").
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When a cat gets caught, you want to take it quite a few miles from where it was caught. I forget the minimum suggested distance (I want to say 10-15 miles), but I'd have no problem driving the next county or two over to release them.
Ask your local humane society if there are any local Trap/Neuter/Return programs in your area. It's the most humane way to deal with feral cats and strays.
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Unless you kick the cat out in someplace that's not someone's backyard. Farmland, for example, would be great on account of cats eat vermin that eat farmers' crops.
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Unless you kick the cat out in someplace that's not someone's backyard. Farmland, for example, would be great on account of cats eat vermin that eat farmers' crops.
What if its a vermin farm ?
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There are many spay and neuter projects for strays. Many strays are a bit too feral for co-habitation with humans, but allowing them to multiply isn't very humane either.
And no, the operations are done by vets, this is not do-it-yourself.
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Unless you kick the cat out in someplace that's not someone's backyard. Farmland, for example, would be great on account of cats eat vermin that eat farmers' crops.
Except that cat dung is bad for anywhere you fancy growing stuff, so a crop farmer might have second thoughts about thanking you.
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There are many spay and neuter projects for strays. Many strays are a bit too feral for co-habitation with humans, but allowing them to multiply isn't very humane either.
And no, the operations are done by vets, this is not do-it-yourself.
The next for dummies book: How to neuter your pets, for DUMMIES!
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I know we don't want it released in our neighborhood again, but I'm all for getting them spayed/neutered. I just don't know that we'd be able to trap them (we've tried with some cats in the past to no avail).
Part of me wonders if they are pets that are allowed to roam. They looked pretty darn healthy; the fur was shiny and their eyes bright and alert. They didn't look particularly skinny, either.
If mothballs don't work, we'll probably do the trap thing and see if the shelter will take them. They didn't seem particularly mean, just skittish. And they aren't like the horrible orange tom we used to have around here, he was fearless. Like, I wouldn't even try scaring him away ever because he never backed down. He also attacked a nice little tuxedo tom we'd had around right under my window.
(Disclaimer: We don't have a bad stray problem; it's never been more than 2 cats at any one time, and we'll go months without strays.)
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Originally Posted by Pyrian
Don't underestimate physical chemistry. It's kind of like chocolate... Very tempting, very bad as a sole diet, yet I wouldn't want to live without it, either.
Part of me wonders if they are pets that are allowed to roam. They looked pretty darn healthy; the fur was shiny and their eyes bright and alert. They didn't look particularly skinny, either.
In that case, I'd try making some calls in the area first before trapping them and giving them to the local SPCA. Nothing ruins your day more than finding out that you're cat's been given to a shelter for you. If you do find out that they're someone's, it'd be best to discuss with them about trying to keep the cats from wandering too much.
If you find out that they are strays, I second (third) the removal of food sources and setting out those humane trap things. After that, you're closest SPCA is probably your best option for getting them into a place that will treat them well and get them a good home (if they're good enough around people).
Aren't a lot of cats these days microchipped? My cat is as she refuses to wear a collar, taking it to a vet and getting it scanned would give you some indication if it has an owner or not.
Don't drive the cat somewhere else, take it to a shelter or have it picked up or something.
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The response she got was: "If the cat is an unspayed female who has been outdoors, she is pregnant"
So true, this is why so many cats are spayed. It also prevents female cats from having "boyfriends". Cats become sexually mature rather young and have a rather short gestation period.
Unless you kick the cat out in someplace that's not someone's backyard. Farmland, for example, would be great on account of cats eat vermin that eat farmers' crops.
If anyone in Australia even thinks about doing something like this, I will personally track them down and give them a clip a-thwart the ear¹ for being so stupid. Feral cats are devastating to native wildlife.
1 = well, not really... but I hope the point is made.
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Part of me wonders if they are pets that are allowed to roam. They looked pretty darn healthy; the fur was shiny and their eyes bright and alert. They didn't look particularly skinny, either.
I was going to ask how certain you are that they're strays. If the answer (as it appears to be) is "not very", then I would strongly suggest to you that it's not your place to "get rid of" them at all. Maybe ask around, spy on them or put up posters to find out whose they are.
In particular, I would be absolutely FURIOUS at you (or anyone else) if you catch someone's pet and harm it in any way or dump it. There is a person in my town putting posters everywhere about her missing Burmese. It's heartbreaking. And in relation to that, it has come up that someone/s is catching cats and dumping them in the bush. This is so unacceptable that I cannot put it in words. Poisoning cats, while horrible, I can at least understand, but if your concern is with their destruction to native wildlife (and I can't really think of any other reason to hate them), dumping them in the bush is so counter-productive it's insane.
That said, why exactly is it such a big problem to have them on your property? It wouldn't bother me... but I know I'm odd. And, y'know, I have a cat (and my boy has another) that's allowed to roam at will during the day (and last night he got out, so got to roam at night as well ). There might be something you could spray around your property that puts them off.
Every eye is an eye. When you are doing the surgery [in 3rd-world countries] it is just as important as if you were doing eye surgery on the Prime Minister or the King.
^: No, because there are programs around that make that sort of behavior a hallmark of being a jackass if an adult and one of those kids we don't want growing up if a kid. Poisoning animals, especially when there's a strong chance they ARE others' pets and especially when there's almost a guarantee that you're going to poison more than your intended targets... That's irresponsible at best. At best.
Well, that's Australia, one of the most precariously balanced continents in existence. Most other continents have had cats integrate with the local ecosystems fairly OK, at least compared to the human influence.
But, yeah, rather than you catching and release, you should see what resources in the area you have to draw upon/make them the problem of.
If you want to just keep them off your property, I've heard bordering your property with pepper/bear spray works, though that too is really just making it someone else's problem.
You mention that the traps didn't work last time...how long were they out? And were they placed in good spots? (Not in-the-way and obvious, but also in/near the strays' normal path of travel?) It can take a couple days or maybe longer for animals to get used to traps enough to explore them.
Spaying/neutering is a good idea that I didn't really think about, though I wouldn't pay out of pocket to have it done...I know around here they sometimes have free clinics for the deed.
Australia's RSPCA always desexes and microchips all animals before rehoming them. Unfortunately, that means they're quite expensive... However, they also fairly often have "amnesty days" and the like, where they'll desex and/or microchip pets for cost or free. I'm not sure what non-RSPCA animal shelters do...
I mentioned here a while ago, my boy and I took in what we thought was a stray cat. Turns out for a long time she was just sharing houses. Then she had kittens at the "other" owner's house, and moved in with us full-time. She wasn't desexed (obviously) or microchipped when we found her, and at first she was very thin, which is why we figured she must've been a stray. Wish we'd moved before the owner found us - or, better yet, the owner had found us before she got rid of all the kittens so we could have one. But, one of her other two cats had been run over recently (), so I felt really bad for her, having one dead and one missing
Again, I gotta ask, why is it such a problem having a cat on your property?
Every eye is an eye. When you are doing the surgery [in 3rd-world countries] it is just as important as if you were doing eye surgery on the Prime Minister or the King.
At least here I'd prefer not to have a possible stray/other person's animal on my property for a few reasons:
We have bird feeders out back, for a few weeks some neighbor's cat wandered in and practically camped itself near them, took a week or two after it stopped coming by for the birds to come back and start feeding there again. This could also apply to menacing other smaller/weaker critters.
I park out on the street in front of my house, and there is nothing to make a morning worse than starting up my car only to see something small and furry dart out, realizing all the while I could've run it over.
This one applies more to the neighborhood dogs than cats, but I've enjoyed being able to walk barefoot in my yard since my dog passed on, and would rather not discover any animal's leavings that way. Neighbor across the street had a dog that roamed semi free around the neighborhood but seemed to have an unnatural fascination with relieving itself in the small patch of grass right next to my car that I'd step in the next day.
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Last edited by SilentDragoon : 11-04-2009 at 10:42 PM.
Australia has enough problems with invasive species, they don't need more.
Bah, if you give the Australians licence to just poison animals wholesale with no regards for property, morality, or where else the poison is getting, then you'll just be encouraging the hooligans back home that their amateur vivisection experiments with Mr. Nutter and Ms. Flopsy are A-OK.
I mentioned here a while ago, my boy and I took in what we thought was a stray cat. Turns out for a long time she was just sharing houses. Then she had kittens at the "other" owner's house, and moved in with us full-time. She wasn't desexed (obviously) or microchipped when we found her, and at first she was very thin, which is why we figured she must've been a stray. Wish we'd moved before the owner found us - or, better yet, the owner had found us before she got rid of all the kittens so we could have one. But, one of her other two cats had been run over recently (), so I felt really bad for her, having one dead and one missing
This is actually how I got my cat. Except in her case, she was "bullied" by the other two cats living in the same house and also another cat from across the street came in through the cat door and ate my cat's food. She ended up "moving in" with us (I was still living with parents back then)... The owner found out but let us keep her. She's now curled up on my pillow...
But, yeah. What's wrong with stray cats? Dogs at least pose danger to humans, especially in packs. But cats... they're only really dangerous to birds and they catch many more mice in any case. If you really don't want a cat hanging out near your place - remove all the food (e.g. put garbage in bags) and ask your neighbours to do the same. If the cat is still around, it's because you're either petting it very often or because there's mice in the area.
We have bird feeders out back, for a few weeks some neighbor's cat wandered in and practically camped itself near them, took a week or two after it stopped coming by for the birds to come back and start feeding there again. This could also apply to menacing other smaller/weaker critters.
This, in particular, is fair enough. Danger to native animals just didn't seem to be Syka's concern.
Every eye is an eye. When you are doing the surgery [in 3rd-world countries] it is just as important as if you were doing eye surgery on the Prime Minister or the King.
Well, when you live in a neighbourhood or even a suburb, most of the natives have already been wiped out by the devastation necessary to build the subdivision.
So any "wildlife" in the area is just parasites that followed the humans into the area or birds that may or may not have moved back after the ruckus died down.
RSS Feeds: 
How to (humanely) get rid of stray cats
Dough supplier of the Kyrie fanclub. 
. If you do find out that they're someone's, it'd be best to discuss with them about trying to keep the cats from wandering too much.
Feral cats are devastating to native wildlife. 
). There might be something you could spray around your property that puts them off.
), so I felt really bad for her, having one dead and one missing 
