McGarnicle
Footballguy
You'll never catch that last 10 to 25% of cats who witness their cousins being trapped. You'll never match their patience, determination and cunning if you even bother to go back and try to manually trap them which I doubt you will. You'll go on to tell people you helped a cat colony, and other people will admire you for being so enlightened, while the SPCA workers in that county deal with the real impact of your actions.It cost over $2,000 for 50 cats, but some of the funding was already in the Meow Fund, but not enough, and this organization helps other colonies in the county as well. If we don't get them all, I will make every effort to trap the ones that aren't caught. As for stray ferals joining a neutered/spayed colony, once ferals are fixed it is rare for them to allow new ferals into their colony. There are several colonies that have lived in this county for years, and they have not gotten any bigger, and they are in locations where they don't bother anyone. Live and let live. The cats just eventually die off just like us humans do.So $500 for 50 cats this year, but you know all the cats won't be trapped, so they'll continue to breed, and other ferals will be introduced, so this will need to be a yearly effort. Forever. Then consider that this colony will certainly expand into areas where they aren't wanted, and there will be people not as humane as you who strongly object to the cats' presence. It's a simple equation of biology and math that doesn't need much explanation, and sooner or later it leads to mass euthanasia of cats that have invaded an area. It sucks, and honestly it makes me sick to think of all the animals that are euthanized every year, and it leads me to the conclusion that feral colonies need to be aggressively removed rather than merely controlled, as early as possible. Rodent control is a weak argument because surely the monetary cost to an exterminator is much less than the cost of these TNR programs over time, and the cost borne to the cats in the form of disease, suffering and inevitably being euthanized.
In a nutshell...Let's try to place generation A in loving homes now, or failing that (because they're feral after all), humanely euthanize them, because generations B, C, D, etc. will be even less adoptable, and their numbers exponentially greater. Let's kill as few animals as possible.
I share your love of animals and admire your efforts here, but I simply disagree that this is an effective and humane method.
I'm not interested in debating you on the value of feral colonies. I don't mean this rudely, but you said your peace on how you feel about feral colonies earlier, so I don't know why you are still going on about it. You aren't interested in contributing to the feral fund, which is fine, so just be on your way. Scram!