Why do some cat rescues try to rehome feral and semi-feral cats?

pawsies

Cats are constantly stressed about being around humans which can't be good? Some volunteers will try to get them used to a home environment but I don't understand why- why not leave them be?

Catch them, neuter them and release them back where they were?

Also stray cats being captured- how do you know they are stray? With the amount of people keeping outdoor cats, anyone could report a 'stray' cat and said cat is taken away. Surely it would be better to neuter and release to same area where the cat is familiar with it's surroundings, knows where to get food etc- if it is a stray.
Unless the cat is a nuisance I don't see why rehoming is best?

slatter4

A lot of the true feral cats brought in to rescues are because the area they are living in is no longer available for them to live in and there is no choice. This is not an easy decision for the rescue as they struggle to relocate them and only a few lucky rescues have feral colonies to put them with.

If a cat is reported as stray it is not just picked up by the rescue centre unless there is good reason such as poor health or injury. Strays cannot be rehomed until they have been on lost and found register for at least 2 weeks and all attempts to find the owners have failed, most are usually around much longer. There have been many neutering schemes for ferals where they are caught, neutered, and released back where they were but with the tip of their ear docked so they aren't caught again.

A semi-feral cat is different - the majority will come around to a home environment on their own terms quite happily and many become adoring lap-cats once they realise the perks. The main practical plus of course being that someone is definately looking out for their health and care.

Either way, a cat in trouble being checked out at its local rescue will be checked for ID chip, health and neutering, before any next step and that has to be a good thing.

krlyr

All well and fine while the animal is healthy but what about when the cat is sick or injured? When wildlife is scarce, when the weather is horrendous, and so on.
Cats are a domesticated species and while many feral cats fare pretty well on their own, they're not immune from getting seriously ill or injured. I think it is kinder for a cat to have an owner that can provide them with the basic necessities - food, water, shelter and veterinary treatment when needed.
Personally, my choice would be that all cat owners have to follow the same laws as dog owners and then we wouldn't have feral cats developing but until that happens, I don't think leaving the cat in that situation is the best for everyone involved.

Fire_Fox

Most rescues will not TNR a cat with FIV or FeLV which many ferals are infected with because it is a risk for domestic cats in the area: the alternative to rehoming is therefore PTS. Also TNR doesn't stop them getting fleas, worms, ear mites or other illnesses - many of which can be treated if the feral cat has been rehomed to a farm or controlled outdoor environment - nor does it protect them from starvation or harsh winters. Small feral kittens and semi feral adults can often be tamed and can become indoor lap cats by choice!

Strays are most often picked up if they are in poor condition, if the person reporting them is fairly confident the cat does not have a home (eg. probable owner moved away or died) or if it needs neutering. Most decent slaves will either have their cat microchipped or be ringing round rescues/ vets if their cat disappears so the occasional non-stray cat should quickly be reunited with their owner.

lostinrates

We inherited semi feral barn cats with a house purchase.

One was ill our first winter here and we did bring her in and medicate her, she was in for four or fivestress filled months, i have wondered many times since if we would have been kinder to pts. The seond got ill very quickly, and by the time we caught her she was in an appaling state. We pts. Both saw me needing antibiotics for infected scratches.

We still have a couple, inluding cat number one, and we care for them but their lives are flearly not easy, and they clearly do not relish contact with us. Food, yes, but they prefer we put it put and close the door and leave them to it. One waits for me outside a window when she is hungry, but will not come near me at all. I long to deflea and worm her, but.....

We do not know what we will do when these die. The cats do use ful job here, but watching them ill is heartbreaking. In / out domestic cats might be less efficient and more expensive, but easier to care or and live with.

spike7451

I work with the semi feral in ASSISI,some of them could be rehomed into the right home,some won't let you get near them.
It has taken over 5 months & a lot of fresh roast chicken & fish to get the majority of the ferals to trust me to the the point where I can stroke them,albeit on there terms.
ASSISI have rehomed several ferals over the years to farms over the years,although the ones there now are there to stay.The latest one came from a home,she was kept in a garage & had NO human contact.She now distrusts people totally.

Fire_Fox

lostinrates wrote: »

We inherited semi feral barn cats with a house purchase.

One was ill our first winter here and we did bring her in and medicate her, she was in for four or fivestress filled months, i have wondered many times since if we would have been kinder to pts. The seond got ill very quickly, and by the time we caught her she was in an appaling state. We pts. Both saw me needing antibiotics for infected scratches.

We still have a couple, inluding cat number one, and we care for them but their lives are flearly not easy, and they clearly do not relish contact with us. Food, yes, but they prefer we put it put and close the door and leave them to it. One waits for me outside a window when she is hungry, but will not come near me at all. I long to deflea and worm her, but.....

We do not know what we will do when these die. The cats do use ful job here, but watching them ill is heartbreaking. In / out domestic cats might be less efficient and more expensive, but easier to care or and live with.

LIR there is a lady over on Purrsinourhearts forum, username Liz, who has approaching 50 feral cats, so has loads of experience of getting them wormed/ fleas/ vet treated. IIRC she uses a combination of automatic traps, sedation in food and an experienced vet for administering anything they cannot. You might search her username and/ or ask other experienced rescuers there to comment. I am sure you will not get any judgement for what you are or are not able to achieve.

snozberry

My boy has feral parentage but I took him in shortly after he was found. His mother has since been neutered and returned to the farm where she continues to catch mice and hiss at all human lifeforms and his dad, being an old boy, has since died. The farm girls do provide food for his mum and the other cats there but you cannot go near them.

My boy was roughly four weeks old and was bottle fed for a while (until he repeatedly bit the teat off). He was taken purely to give him the best start because if he was left with mum there would have been an army of cats and the older they become, the harder it is for them to become pets.

In my opinion, the adult cats should be humanly captured, neutered and returned to their environment unless the location is too dangerous. The kittens should be neutered when old enough and cared for by humans as pets.

My boy is fab - very loving, friendly and playful. Just wish that he wasn't the excellent mouser that he is

lostinrates

Fire_Fox wrote: »

LIR there is a lady over on Purrsinourhearts forum, username Liz, who has approaching 50 feral cats, so has loads of experience of getting them wormed/ fleas/ vet treated. IIRC she uses a combination of automatic traps, sedation in food and an experienced vet for administering anything they cannot. You might search her username and/ or ask other experienced rescuers there to comment. I am sure you will not get any judgement for what you are or are not able to achieve.

Oh no, ours are very wise to traps i am afraid...tried that for several months at first. We caught a hedgehog and a neighbours cat in one though (and were please to tell the neighbours it did not have cat aids and had been spayed :eek::o)

Sedation in food is a bit dodgy too. We feed hedgehogs aswell, and the neighbours cats also wander over (ours are not bothered anout the food we put out, as the other cats are all considerably tougher than them and they know it). But primarily because my neighbours also put 'food' ( brea and milk :mad:) out and the ferals are canny enough to choose that over anything that might be medicated. They just KNOW:mad:


To catch the first i lietrally sat outvthere with food for an hour a day. If hey wanted the nice smelling chicken/ fish they HAD to come and be near me. Then moved the bowls into the house. Took ages and was fairly horrid when i daught her. I would have liked to wait but i could tell she had a bladder infection and xould not really wait and it had taken a long time already.

Mayflower10cat

In the six years we've lived in this cottage, we've been feeding (and watching over) a ginger 'feral' cat that appears in the garden at dinner time. At first he would vanish when we opened the back door with food but after about 6 months he'd wait nervously in the shrubbery until we went back inside. After a year, he'd wait for his dinner and not run away when we put the bowl down. Finally my husband couldn't resist giving him a tiny stroke..... which he just about allowed. After three years we could stroke him a little whilst he ate and if we were very quiet sitting out in the garden, he might approach us and sit not far from our feet. We also spotted he was neuteured. It's taken a long time and he's still not very tame! I have several friends who do rescue work and I've asked all of them what is the best thing to do - they all said; is he safe where he is, are you going to continue feeding him and if he needed veterinary attention would you be able to get him in a cage??? The answer to all these is, yes. For now. So, we've left things as they are for now. There's a large patch of waste ground behind our garden which then leads onto a farm with old barns etc. (The cat isn't a farm cat, though he might take shelter there). Outline planning permission has been granted to build on this land and it's only a matter of a year perhaps, before full consent is given and the land is built upon. This is what worries us - what will happen when this poor cats territory vanishes.

Only a few weeks ago, I was approached by a lady who used to live in our lane and she was asking about the ginger cat who used to sit in her garden? It turned out this poor old cat used to belong to a neighbour of hers - this neighbour moved house and left the ginger cat behind as 'he wasn't getting on with her other cats........'

Well, we worm him and de-flea him as and when we can/when he'll permit. I can only imagine him being happy as a farm cat and if/when the land at the back is built on (the barns are being knocked down), we'll try very hard to find a farm to take him on. A local tree surgeon just might, MIGHT, be persuaded to add him to his farm. It's just so sad to know he was abandoned deliberately. It hurts me to know that people can do that, quite easily.

Crocswearer

We had a kitten from feral parents. A lady who was watching over/capturing, neutering and releasing a feral colony, found a litter of kittens one spring. She took them and their mum into her back garden and rehomed the kittens a few weeks later.

He was such a home boy! We expected him to go wandering for days on end but he was home every night, and in fact didn't settle until the other cat/s were home too. He was never a lap cat, but would stand on my lap for strokes. And he loved a bed-time cuddle on my bed before he settled down for the night, even encouraging me up to bed if it was getting too late!

He was eventually pts aged 12 after a short history of heart failure. I'm sure he had many more years in our care than he would have had in the semi-wild.