As a child, my first pet was a homeless cat that wandered into our yard and soon produced kittens! I found house cats (Felis catus) to be great companions, fun to watch, and gave me affection and comfort.
However, our domestic housecats are also exotic invasive predators that originated in Egypt and are now more abundant than any native carnivore.
Like the established Burmese python snakes released into the Everglades, cats cause tremendous wildlife mortality and threat to human health.
The National Audubon Society supports responsible pet ownership. This means keeping domestic cats indoors and on-leash outdoors.
Yes, you can train your cat to go outdoors on a leash, as our state law requires. We sympathize with cat lovers who don’t want cats harmed and who abhor removing feral outdoor cats. Unfortunately, feral cats are often hungry, sick, and subject to lives cut short by autos, predators, injury, parasites, and disease (3-5 years of life instead of 15 years for indoor cats).
The issue of feral cats is emotionally charged for those who love cats and those who seek to protect our health and decreasing wildlife.
Bird populations and other wildlife are declining from loss of habitat, climate change, window and cell-tower collisions, and harmful chemicals in our environment.
However, there is no refuting the research data that feral and outdoor cats, with their impulsive predatory instincts, cause the greatest environmental impact by being responsible for the extinction of at least 33 bird species worldwide.
When cats are outside and unleashed, studies estimate that the 140-million outdoor pet and feral cats in the U.S. kill between 1.3 to 4 billion birds and from 6.3 to 22.3 billion other small animals.
Based on scientific studies, Dr. David Cox, Audubon Florida & Pelican Island Audubon Society, estimated that in Indian River County the number of free-ranging domestic cats is at least 53,000, which would annually kill from a half million to 1.5 million birds, and between 2.4-8.5 million small animals that live in our yards, public parks, conservation areas, and vacant spaces.
Feral cats also transmit Rabies and other human diseases such as Toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease. Cats spread this parasite in their urine to complete the parasite’s life cycle. The parasite may infect all warm-blooded species including birds, manatees, dolphins, and even cold-blooded turtles and snakes.
Humans are infected by consuming parasitic cysts from insect-contaminated food or contact with cysts from infected-cat feces. Pregnant women and their infants may suffer eye or brain damage.
Instead of removing feral cats from the environment in a humane way, many cat lovers want to reduce feral cats by trapping and neutering them, vaccinating them for Rabies, then releasing them back into the environment, a process called Trap, Neuter, Release (TNR).
This is promoted and advertised as a method that will reduce feral-cat numbers. Unfortunately, there are no scientifically controlled TNR studies to prove that this reduces feral-cat populations. TNR will not eliminate feral cats because people continue to release cats when they no longer want to care for them.
Pet owners also do not neuter all of their pets, leading to the release of unwanted cats outdoors. TNR and feeding stations actually maintain feral-cat populations that continue to depredate wildlife and pose public-health risks.
Unfortunately, the Indian River Humane Society is now supporting TNR, reversing their previous TNR nonsupport policy.
For those who want to entertain their cat outside, but also want to protect wildlife, “Catios” or cat patios are simple totally outdoor enclosures that indoor cats can access. (See: //content.yardmap.org/learn/cats-catio/)
Let’s require cat owners to vaccinate, install tracing chips, neuter or spay their cats, and educate them how to keep all cats indoors or on leashes. Trap Neuter Re-abandon cats retains their instinctive predatory drive, causing tremendous wildlife losses.
Please support our Indian River County Administration and Health Department’s efforts to remove free-ranging outdoor cats humanely from the landscape.
Signed,
Richard H. Baker, Ph.D
President, Pelican Island Audubon