U.S. Faces Growing Feral Cat Problem Maryann Mott for National Geographic News September 7, 2004 You may have seen them wandering through parks or languishing behind restaurants. At first, these cats look domesticated. But theyre really wild animals. Feral cats are the offspring of stray or abandoned household pets. Raised without human contact, they quickly revert to a wild state and form colonies wherever food and shelter are available. Cats Can Catch and Spread Bird Flu, Study Says Many city and county animal control agencies are mandated only to deal with dogs—not cats. So for decades feral cats have remained untouchable. Some feline experts now estimate 70 million feral cats live in the United States, the consequence of little effort to control the population and of the cats ability to reproduce quickly. The number concerns wildlife and ornithology organizations that believe these stealthy predators decimate bird populations and threaten public health. The organizations want the cats removed from the environment and taken to animal shelters, where they are often killed. Thats caused a chorus of hisses from feral cat advocates who say the cats are unjustly being blamed for killing wildlife. Thousands of volunteers and animal welfare groups throughout the country stepped forward in the early 1990s to control the wild cat population through mass sterilization programs... Read more: news.nationalgeographic/news/2004/09/0907_040907_feralcats.html
Posted on: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 19:56:06 +0000
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