Close Encounters of the Feral Kind

OAR, along with cat advocates all over the United States, celebrated National Feral Cat Day last week (October 16). Our staff and volunteers were excited to get back to our organization's roots - trap/neuter/return - and do a little good for the homeless cats in our city. But the zeal was taken out of our sails a bit when a fellow TNR group was faced with the following challenge: a long-established colony that volunteers had been feeding was threatened by a new renter who was moving into the neighborhood, and was demanding that all cats be removed. The group's volunteers had to scramble to trap the cats, but that was nothing in the face of a far bigger challenge: where to put them?

The issue this group faced is one that every TNR group has faced at some point - residents who, for one reason or another, prefer not to have feral or stray cats in their neighborhoods. Sometimes, neighbors advocating for removal of the cats are swayed by TNR logic. They hear and believe two central principles of TNR: 1) there is no place else for these cats to go, and 2) if there is no place else for them to go, and they can't stay here, then the other option is that they are killed. For those of us who embrace TNR, this argument seems like more than enough. But for some folks, the inconvenience of having cats nearby is of the greatest concern, and the outcome for the cats is not a compelling enough counter-argument.

In honor of National Feral Cat Day, and, more importantly, in honor of the lives of these remarkable, independent, resilient cats, we want to make the case for TNR again. We don't want to get bogged down in a debate about whether cats kill birds, and how many birds they kill (though if we do talk about that, we would like also to make honorable mention of the snakes, bugs, and rodents that fall prey as well!). We don't want to cite CDC statistics about the extent to which cats do or do not spread zoonotic diseases. We're not taking up the issue of whether and how you can dissuade unwanted cats (or other creatures) from entering your yards. We want to leave aside the issue of invasive versus non-invasive species. These are all important issues, but we think they pale in comparison to the one larger issue: these living, breathing, feeling, sensing creatures share the earth with us and with the millions of other creatures that make up this planet, and they have every right to do so. When we say "well, we just don't want them in our yard," or "we really aren't cat people," we are stating more than just a simple preference. We are denying the right of another living species to exist within our space.

In our country in 2012, the preference not to have cats (or any other living creatures) in your neighborhood has deadly consequences for those animals. When we call our municipal shelter to express dismay at the "stray" cats in our yard, the outcome for those cats, in almost every single case, is death. We are, then, saying more than just "we really aren't cat people." We are saying "the inconvenience we experience having these cats around is more important than their very lives." We are saying "we feel no obligation to live in harmony with other living creatures - it doesn't suit us." We are saying, in effect, that the diversity and beauty of the millions of living creatures on this planet is nothing in the face of the whim and fancy of humankind. 

Several months ago, our Executive Director was late for an appointment. When we called to check on her, she sounded upset. She was late, it turned out, because she had come across an injured bird in the road, and she was trying to rescue it. The case for TNR isn't coming from "crazy cat ladies." It isn't an emotional reaction to cute, furry kittens. It is a philosophy about how we share our world with other creatures. It is a commitment to live in harmony with the diversity of life on this planet, and to cherish and respect that life. It is a way of life for those who stop to rescue wounded birds, because we are stewards of this earth.