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View Full Version : Need Advice for Cat Welfare Situation Please



meatlesslizzy
April 27th, 2009, 11:56 AM
Goodmorning everyone!

My mom lives in a very rural area in California. Many people do not take care of their animals in this area, and many make their way to my parents house, where they in turn take care of the animals, spay, neuter, give them medical care, and adopt them out if possible. There is a large feral cat population up there, in part due to one person encouraging the breeding of these cats for "mousers". My mom talked with the man, and convinced him to allow her to spay them (40 adult cats in all). She got him a food supply, and he promised to feed the cats on a regular basis. Well, unfortunately, this was not the case, and many of the cats went off in search of food, only to be eaten or mangled by wild animals. There are several left, and several just showed up with their entire back ends "limp", as if they have either been shot or attacked by other wild animals.

We don't know what to do. We obviously financially cannot continue to take on these animals, but also don't feel we can call Animal Control on the man, as we were told they would just put the animals to sleep because they are feral. I really need advice or other reccommendations here if possible. We love animals, and I even took a kitten from the feral group that had a seizure disorder (due to inbreeding we believe), only to have her pass away after the seizures grew worse (we did literally EVERYTHING medically possible for her). Is there any way to help these cats and have them live in the end? Thank you so much for any advice :)

unovegan
April 27th, 2009, 11:59 AM
Look online or call the local humane society for feral cat rescues. Often there are people who do it. I have two garage cats that are semi feral that were rescued from a completely feral mother. this woman catches them and depending on their level of being feral, adopts them out as mousers, in homes, etc. That might help.

VeggieSquirrel
April 28th, 2009, 03:32 AM
As much as I hate to say it, there is often a fate worse than death. If those cats have been shot/attacked/etc. and vet care is not a feasible option, it would be better for them to be put out of their misery than to go on suffering. I would also still report the man to the authorities. You gave him a shot at staying out of trouble as long as he agreed to feed/take care of them, and he obviously isn't sticking to his end of the deal, and he needs to be punished!

hoodedclawjen
April 28th, 2009, 12:13 PM
As much as I hate to say it, there is often a fate worse than death. If those cats have been shot/attacked/etc. and vet care is not a feasible option, it would be better for them to be put out of their misery than to go on suffering. I would also still report the man to the authorities. You gave him a shot at staying out of trouble as long as he agreed to feed/take care of them, and he obviously isn't sticking to his end of the deal, and he needs to be punished!

how is killing cats that haven't done anything wrong going to punish a guy who has clearly stopped caring about them anyway?

VeggieSquirrel
April 29th, 2009, 04:05 PM
how is killing cats that haven't done anything wrong going to punish a guy who has clearly stopped caring about them anyway?

I didn't mean to imply that putting the cats out of their suffering if they cannot be helped would punish the guy. As you said he doesn't care about them anymore. I said, "I would also still report the man to the authorities. You gave him a shot at staying out of trouble as long as he agreed to feed/take care of them, and he obviously isn't sticking to his end of the deal, and he needs to be punished!" Meaning that he should be punished by going to the authorities and hopefully getting some legal action against him (as hard as that can be).

By all means, I think the healthy animals should be helped as much as possible... look for homes for them, put up posters, etc at vet offices, try to spend time with them and get them more used to people so they can be pets if at all possible... but for those that are very ill, it's best if they can go peacefully rather than dying in agony outside somewhere.