Often looks can be deceiving and that is the way it is with cats. You may think of them as cute and cuddly, but the reality is that in the wild they are an a dangerously expanding population, a danger to themselves and to other wildlife.
Tonight a group in Carlisle met to try to teach those interested in how to limit the exploding feral cat population in Central PA.
In eight counties here in South Central PA, there are estimated 350,000 to 400,000 wild or feral cats and that population is growing. The reason? About 85% of indoor pet cats are spaded or neutered, that number drops to a mere 3% for wild cats.
Those unaltered cats and us humans often get in trouble with the same type of behavior.
Christine Arnold, President, Nobody's Cats Foundation:
"If kittens are born, their life can be brutal. In the first year of life about 65% to 70% of kittens die, from starvation or injury or illness. They do add stress to already stressed species, but we believe that one species that provides the most stress for all other species is the human being."
Doug Vanston, Dickinson Law School Student:
"I go running at night and I see a lot of the cats running around."
And Doug says euthanasia won't work.
Vanston:
"It just doesn't work,you can never kill them fast than they can reproduce."
Tonight students from Dickinson Law School were leaning how to catch the cats.
Erik Neiman, Dickinson Law School Student:
"You put out the cages and they seem to come it pretty quickly, they step on a trap the cage closes up and you have the cat."
Here is what the programs does.
It's called "Trap, neuter, return," because the cats are put back to where they came from, where they have already been living, It's just that they have been spade or neutered and rabies vaccinated.
If you like to help by rounding up some of the stray cats in your neighborhood the Nobody's Cats Foundation is having an open house at their tactile in Camp Hill this Saturday between 1:00pm and 3:00pm.
Tonight a group in Carlisle met to try to teach those interested in how to limit the exploding feral cat population in Central PA.
In eight counties here in South Central PA, there are estimated 350,000 to 400,000 wild or feral cats and that population is growing. The reason? About 85% of indoor pet cats are spaded or neutered, that number drops to a mere 3% for wild cats.
Those unaltered cats and us humans often get in trouble with the same type of behavior.
Christine Arnold, President, Nobody's Cats Foundation:
"If kittens are born, their life can be brutal. In the first year of life about 65% to 70% of kittens die, from starvation or injury or illness. They do add stress to already stressed species, but we believe that one species that provides the most stress for all other species is the human being."
Doug Vanston, Dickinson Law School Student:
"I go running at night and I see a lot of the cats running around."
And Doug says euthanasia won't work.
Vanston:
"It just doesn't work,you can never kill them fast than they can reproduce."
Tonight students from Dickinson Law School were leaning how to catch the cats.
Erik Neiman, Dickinson Law School Student:
"You put out the cages and they seem to come it pretty quickly, they step on a trap the cage closes up and you have the cat."
Here is what the programs does.
It's called "Trap, neuter, return," because the cats are put back to where they came from, where they have already been living, It's just that they have been spade or neutered and rabies vaccinated.
If you like to help by rounding up some of the stray cats in your neighborhood the Nobody's Cats Foundation is having an open house at their tactile in Camp Hill this Saturday between 1:00pm and 3:00pm.