Are Feral cats a major problem in the rural US?

[roo_ster]

Live in suburbs and we raise a few chickens. A neighbor's tom cat killed two of our chickens. I then set live traps and took Tommy Cat to the municipal animal shelter. Neighbor was put out. It seems that to spring your pet the first time is $X. The second $2X, 3rd $3X, and so on. Neighbor learned to keep Tommy Cat inside.

So, in the burbs and cities, keep your cats inside.

My dad grew up on a farm and they kept a few barn cats around to manage the rats & mice. If the cats got too numerous, a .22LR managed the cats easily enough. They did have a feral dog problem. The dogs would attack the pigs. They finally got sorted out with .22LR, too.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

Feral cats and dogs are typically only a problem in rural areas where some ignorant (often well meaning) sap decides to feed them.

It starts out small, then grows with the booming population of feral cats and dogs until one day they realize they're buying food in 50 pound bags and a significant portion of their income is going towards feeding a population explosion.

Some people think that's "cute".

It's not.

Feral cats and dogs in rural areas are otherwise not much more than an occasional problem.

 

[.308 Norma]

Feral cats and dogs in rural areas are otherwise not much more than an occasional problem.

Yep. That's almost the same thing I said (post #6) three pages ago. Around here, "problem" feral cats get treated with our 17HMR or the neighbor's 22LR. If all the feral cats (1 or 2 of them) are doing is keeping the "native" vole and gopher populations in check though, we leave them alone. Besides, the coyotes and the county road usually keep the feral cat population "in check" anyway.
I don't think there are many, if any feral dogs around here though. I'm guessing the farm and ranch dogs that most people around here have would make short work of feral dogs if there were any.

 

[Terry G]

If your going to "Adopt" Feral Cat's because you like them or want them around to keep rodent's in check you have a duty to spay/neuter them. If you don't you will soon have a real problem on your hands and your neighbors will start to dislike you intensely. We don't have neighbors, but we neutered all our's anyway.

 

[Highland Lofts]

This conversation is actually quite civil. Most topics like this tend to go way devided. I like how we are starying focused on the topic.

Thank you guys.

 

[jmorris]

If your going to "Adopt" Feral Cat's because you like them or want them around to keep rodent's in check you have a duty to spay/neuter them. If you don't you will soon have a real problem on your hands and your neighbors will start to dislike you intensely.

I agree, a great way to get into a conundrum, is introduce an animal without any control.

So you let them go crazy.


Then go crazy the other direction.

https://ssaa.org.au/news-resources/hunting/feral-cat-round-up-the-latest-on-feral-cat-management

 

[jmorris]

This conversation is actually quite civil. Most topics like this tend to go way devided. I like how we are starying focused on the topic.

Thank you guys.

You can thank the moderators, doing what they do better than any other forum.

 

[.308 Norma]

If your going to "Adopt" Feral Cat's because you like them or want them around to keep rodent's in check you have a duty to spay/neuter them

Who said anything about "adopting" feral cats? I said (a couple of times in fact) that unless feral cats become a problem, like if there gets to be 3 or 4 of them on our property, we leave them alone to keep the rodent population in check.

If you don't you will soon have a real problem on your hands and your neighbors will start to dislike you intensely.

We've been here for 40+ years, and get along with our neighbors (who have been here longer than we have) very well. Of course that could be because our neighbors feel the same way about feral cats as we do. That is, if there's too many of them, they shoot them. The only difference is, our neighbor, Bill uses a 22LR, while I prefer my 17HMR for problem feral cats.
BTW, we have a lot bigger problem with drop-off cats than we ever have with feral cats. Idiots (because I can't think of a stronger word that would be allowed on THR) abandon unwanted cats out here a couple of times every year. I sometimes shoot them, I sometimes see them dead out on the county road, and I think the coyotes sometimes get them because they just disappear after a few days. However, once in a great while, we do adopt one, and it definitely gets spayed or neutered.

 

[CraigC]

Out here in Washington State people eat cougars, the butcher shops process them. They can eat all of them, leave me out of we when they say we eat them out here.

I haven't tried it but have heard their meat is quite good.

 

[Chuck R.]

I live on 80 acres in the sticks and rarely, very rarely, will I see any kind of cat loose. I suspect the coyotes keep them in check.

We used to have an issue with stray dogs, due to the students getting orders for overseas and dropping their dogs off in the country for "adoption". The fort came up with a mandatory micro-chip policy for dogs residing on post, so the strays can be traced. Problem solved.

 

[Highland Lofts]

Mico chips should be mandatory on cats & dogs. Which would help identify where these strays came from and return them to their registered owner. This is a big problem nation wide and should be delt with.
About forty years ago one of my friends and his wife had a neighbor lady that had a two story house. The second story apartment was vacant and was a cat hotel. There was a large volume of cats living there and a couple of possums. You coild smell the cat odor from two houses away. No way in hell could you keep up with the cat litter. Some of the neighborhood kids would shoot them in thier back yards with thier pellet guns.
Finely the city cracked down and did something about it. This was a classic example of a animal hoarded. Them cats looked ragged as hell and never got to see a vet and they were very skiddish around people. Never had any human contact except the old lady filling the cat feeders.
I'm sure that whole upstairs apartment had to be stripped down to the studs and insulation removed then coat the studs & floors to get ride of all that cat urine & fecal odor.

 

[double bogey]

The Audubon society claims feral house cats are the largest killer of endangered bird species. I have hunted on more than one place where cats were to be shot on sight. They are very hard on quail and other ground nesting birds.
Here in town my next door neighbor feeds them, and we have had as many as 20 roaming around. Not so many since his son brought home a pit bull puppy. Before that i would relocate them with a live trap. Some of those cats were vicious an i was half scared to open the trap to release them. Biggest issue in town i see is not vetting shots, fleas and ticks.
Also i bird watch my feeder in my yard.

 

[ilbob]

I think it depends. Some places seem to have lots of feral cats or dogs. Other places not. Places where people feed them probably have it worse. my guess is the coyotes in most places do a pretty good job of cutting down on the feral cat population.

Farmers tend to allow a few feral cats to live in their barns and other outbuildings just to keep them rodents down. I suspect if the cats get out of control population wise they are dealt with.

I don't remember the exact number but there were some feral cats that were inhabiting a ruralish residence not too far from here some years ago. The county animal control started by trying to trap the feral cats to see if they could be adopted. this did not work very well as the cats were interested in being either trapped or adopted. I'm not sure what happened eventually but the cats were quietly disposed of. I heard there were several hundred of them. Apparently an old lady who was feeding them and then died. The house ended up being demolished because it smelled so bad that it was not worth repairing.

 

[Highland Lofts]

I bought an old 66 Ford 3/4 ton 2WD for a tow company that ran shop.out of an olf farm When I went into the old houe to get the paper work the house was full of cats. They were every where, on the table, on the kitchen counters, on yop of the fridge, out on the couch & livingroom chairs and you talk about STINK!

When they went out of business some one bought it and started selling plants and had a large fruit stand out in the barn.
I don't know if they ever got the stink out of that old house. I don't like cats at all, and every one has their own likes & dislikes. Just like people who like snakes, i have a friend who is in to boa constrictors. He has about thirty of them. I never stop by his place and never will. Don't like them either and never will.

 

[CraigC]

The biggest problem in these parts is people driving to the country to drop off unwanted pets, or a litter of kittens or puppies. To me, these people are in the running for the ultimate coward award. Not only are you dooming your pet to a really hard, really short life but you're also making them someone else's problem.

 

[huntsman]

I live rural on the end of a dirt road, last fall someone dumped a mother cat and 3 kittens just weaned.Took about 2 months for us to find homes for them.

normally I just run them out of the yard and let the yotes eat them but these were tux colored and very friendly so I took the effort to place them.

 

[Meeks36]

Farmers tend to allow a few feral cats to live in their barns and other outbuildings just to keep them rodents down. I suspect if the cats get out of control population wise they are dealt with.

I've been to a couple culling parties at a farm. Grown ups hand kids bb guns or 22s if we didn't have them already. And put a bounty on each cat. $.25 per cat. Bury them or throw them over the fence. 1 or 2 are good at keeping rats away. More then that birds start to disappear. 4 can become 20 rather quickly. From breeding and idiots dropping them off.

Guy that ran a body shop went out of town for a week. Upon his return his "friend" had trapped a dozen cats. And released them on his property with a bag of cat food. Still a few running around.

 

[.308 Norma]

To me, these people are in the running for the ultimate coward award.

As I said in my post, "idiots" is not a strong enough word for people that drop off unwanted pets out in the country. I think "cowards" is a better word for those people, but it's still not strong enough.

 

[Hookeye]

Big time problem, would be worse if country folks weren't taking care of things..

The TNR (trap neuter release) is making it a problem. Folks think if they stop a male from breeding it will stop the cat population.
Uh, stupid people still dump cats in those areas.

And if the TNR male has his territory............then those newly dumped cats move to someplace else.
Read: if the problem doesn't get worse in an area (doubtful- because people still dump cats there).............the problem then EXPANDS to elsewhere.

If you can't stop people from dumping cats, then the ONLY solution is to destroy those that are dumped.
If one really likes wildlife, then it's their duty to shut down every stray cat they see.

Unpleasant as that may be.

It was the unwritten rule dang near everywhere growing up.
But people as a group have gotten less smart since then.

 

[Hookeye]

We had cats on our farm, for rodent control.
Never bought a one. They just showed up.
Too many and gramps would reduce the herd.

Nowadays a bunch of cats on a farm, may draw in coyotes. Soon you have no cats.
LOL, happened at a horse farm I know of.

 

[Hookeye]

We have two cats. Were wild and taken in by Animal Shelter. Kittens, sick ones.
Shelters IMHO inept and dishonest.
Got a lot of $ in one of them, both about died before we got em.
They are cool pets, lots of fun........and fixed.
I like the one lung orange one best.
That means I'd shoot her last.

 

[Hookeye]

I get about 18 yrs out of a cat, inside critters only.
Litter box in garage, pass through door.
You don't smell cat at my place, or find fur.
We run a clean home.
House is for people first, pets second.
I have a VERY sensitive nose and always have had.

Been to visit others and about passed out, open the door and get a knife shoved through sinus into brain...........cat smell so strong.

How in the heck do folks live in that?

 

[Hookeye]

Old F&W area guys used to drive around in those ugly trucks, M60 or 10/22 behind the seat.
We knew what that was for.
John Q public clueless, as they should be.

 

[Highland Lofts]

The 650 cow dairy farm I worked on a few years ago and the houses all around it couldn't keep an outside cat if your life depended upon it.
Between the eagles, bobcats & coyotes a cat didn't stand a snowballs chance in hell.

When cats were dropped off they were gone with in a day or two. Two thongs coyotes love for dessert, cats & rats.

 

[Hookeye]

I live on edge of town. Cats sleep on top of cars. We hear the yotes off and on.
Old torn up tomcat the redneck neighbors never took care of, was pretty smart/cool.
He'd hang out w me while I worked on my Jeep.
We ended up feeding him.

Saw him a ways off, hunting some grass strips between businesses.

Think a yote got him.

Bummer, but not unexpected.