Cats make great pets, but strays must be neutered and returned
Re May 5 article, “Too many cats, ineffective rules pose problem in Rotterdam”: Is there a more comforting scenario than that of someone curled up in an overstuffed chair with a good book and a cat purring on his or her lap? Cats are the most popular pets, and the most populous! They are our family members, yet if not neutered at a young age, they become elusive wanderers, seeking what nature dictates [in] fi nding a mate! Two unneutered cats can reproduce 460,000 offspring in seven years! Because of that, we euthanize 575 cats per hour in the United States! But it has been proven that euthanasia does not affect the population numbers. The only true method of maintaining a feral cat colony is a trap-neuter-and-return policy. Once the cats are neutered, the caterwauling stops, the fi ghting and aggression subsides and the population decreases. Someone maintains the colony with food and water, and peace prevails. The plight of the stray cat is one of hunger, suffering and pain, producing many more unwanted, uncared-for [cats]. It used to be that whenever I saw a stray cat, I had to look the other way because it was too painful to wonder why it wasn’t in a fur curl on someone’s lap! Sticking our heads in the sand will never solve this problem. We need to each do our part to break this heartbreaking cycle of so many unwanted, homeless pets. If we join together and donate to our shelters or volunteer our time, we can bring a humane solution to this situation. Caring About the Strays Inc. is a taxdeductible, not-for-profi t organization founded in response to just such a dilemma. We have the knowledge and experience to tackle this issue, but our meager donations and lack of volunteers has us stopped in our tracks! Our one little drop of water is powerless until it is joined together with many others to make a tidal wave of change. Join our cause. Do your part. Bring the comfort back to the animals and to the people in their lives. With everyone’s help, this is a solvable problem. Kindness and compassion to animals is the right thing to do. It builds a better world for all of us. Together we can bring back respect to Mrs. DiCaprio and the animals she cares for.
JANE DEMARTINO Schenectady The writer is president of Caring About The Strays Inc.
‘Good-deed doer’ endangers public’s health in Rotterdam
M.A. Kosek’s May 13 letter, “Rotterdam’s ‘cat lady’ is just a good-deed doer,” asks, ”Do you honestly feel threatened to live on your street because your neighbor is feeding cats that aren’t hers?” The thoughtful answer is yes! These cats have not been inoculated against rabies. This alone makes them a serious threat to human health. Those wounded by, or experiencing close contact with, any animal that hasn’t been inoculated (typically a wild animal) must be treated as if it was exposed to rabies. Recent advances in the treatment of this disease are much less onerous, but failure to get prompt treatment entails the risk of a horrible death. Cats carry other diseases contagious to humans, pets and wildlife. Many have fleas and ticks (including deer ticks, which carry Lyme disease) or serious skin disorders. These vectors and diseases are not limited to feral cats, but most intelligent adults will avoid a bat, raccoon, skunk or other wildlife which appears tame or which approaches them. Many people, perhaps most children, however, will allow a cat to get up close, try to handle it and thereby be placed at risk. Beyond these direct health risks, feral cats (and free-roaming cats with a “home”) represent a scourge on wildlife. Many of us who feed wild birds in the winter fi nd these cats (or their tracks) under our bird feeders. It is not sunflower seeds they are after. They are a major predator on groundnesting birds and those who nest low in shrubs. These cats also kill the young of small mammals like cottontail rabbits and squirrels. The supplemental feeding of cats allows a higher population and thus more predation. We have populations of skunks, raccoons, opossums, foxes and coyotes roaming Rotterdam. When (not if) the inevitable rabies outbreak occurs, infected wildlife will be attracted to the food left out for the cats. The cats, even without direct contact with an infected animal, can be infected with rabies from the saliva left on the cat food. The feeding thus brings the deadly disease to our doorsteps. Through transmission to free-roaming not-inoculated “house” cats, the rabies is brought into our parlors. For these reasons, I believe Mrs. Di-Caprio’s well-intentioned actions represent a serious hazard to the community. The town is aware of the hazard; if it fails to act, it will also become liable if these animals cause harm. We all feel for these abandoned animals. Every domestic animal deserves a good, loving home. As with vicious dogs, or dangerous exotic pets, we cannot allow them to place the community at risk.
Outfit offers alternative to euthanizing feral cats
Re the negativity surrounding the feral cat population brought to light with the attempted trapping in Palatine Bridge [May 16 Gazette]: Feline Guardian Angels is a newly formed, not-for-profi t, 501c3 organization which supports trap, neuter and release as an effective means of feral cat population control. This group was formed by a group of concerned citizens to help control the feral cat population in Montgomery County and to help educate the general public on this topic. The volunteers in this group would like to raise public awareness by offering education information on how to help effectively and humanely control the local feral cat population. Please call 466-3478 for education information or to help with this cause by becoming a volunteer. Please remember to be part of the solution by spaying or neutering your pet.
SUSAN HALVEY Amsterdam Halvey is secretary for Feline Guardian Angels.
Letter writer mistaken about health threat posed by feral cats
Susan Henningson’s May 18 letter seems endless in condemning feral cats as a scourge to society. I don’t know where she obtained her information. Public health officials around the country, many of whom do not like cats at all, still agree that complaints about disease as a result of feral cats are overblown. Respected sources like Cornell University and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Rabies, to name just two, have concluded that accusations such as hers are considered “old wives’ tales” by disease control professionals and scientists. Yes, cats do prey on birds. Yes, cats do take down small mammals. That is the instinctual nature of felines, whether they be feral, wild or domestic. There is a thing in nature that drives animals’ behavior; we cannot change that any more than we can keep the foxes out of the henhouse, hunting dogs away from rabbits and homo sapiens from killing each other. Blaming cats on spreading rabies is totally out of proportion. A rabid cat usually dies in a short period of time; it does not stalk around, waiting to infect humans. Blaming them for being high-profi le vectors of Lyme disease is absurd unless you are up close with them, which humans are not. Ferals do not let humans approach them, as a rule. Technically speaking, we are all vectors for Lyme disease these days. Your family dog is probably the worst vector — unless you live in an area highly populated by deer. Feral cats catch fleas from other animals, and the cleanest and most beloved house pets carry fleas. With the exception of ringworm, skin diseases are more readily spread from cat to cat rather than from cat to human. Supplemental feeding of feral cats is not being done to perpetuate their numbers, it is to humanely care for man’s reckless actions and done in conjunction with trap/neuter/release [TNR] to ultimately decrease their populations. Science backs this up. TNR has been proven to work and is the only humane solution. Where is Susan Henningson’s humane solution?
Well it wont be RPD as they are tooo busy chasing the founder of the cat code =- they are going right to the souce of the problem
It is about time that they locked her up.
“And yet our opponents tell us not to interfere with abortion. They tell us not to impose our morality on those who wish to allow or participate in the taking of the life of infants before birth. Yet no one calls it imposing morality to prohibit the taking of life after a child is born. We’re told about a woman’s right to control her own body. But doesn’t the unborn child have a higher right, and that is to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?” – Ronald Reagan
▶ SCRUFF (Spaying Capital Region Un¬owned Feral Felines) picnic and informational meeting, The Crossings of Colonie, 580 Albany Shaker Road, Colonie When:
5:30 p.m. Contact: 526 ]3372 or http:// http://www.scruffcats.org/ Notes: Volunteers, supporters and interested parties are invited to attend the potluck.
I know it's Colonie, but maybe someone might be interested.
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