Spring 2009 - Issue 5

The Silversword: Home > Op-Ed > Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor

Volunteers Needed: Feral Cat Care

Have you ever noticed the cats that call the Chaminade campus home? Tigger, Sassy and Sparky are three “old-timer” kitties that first appeared on campus in the early 1990s. Though they were once feral (unsocialized) cats, over the years they have come to trust the people they know who care for them. The cats come running with a happy “tails up” greeting when they hear familiar footsteps, then, rubbing against their human friend’s legs —their kitty version of the latest gossip on campus. Some of the cats are quite talkative!

Stray and feral cats are common everywhere in our island community, as they are on the Mainland and throughout the world. Although animal abandonment is both cruel and illegal, many of these cats were once pets that were lost or abandoned by irresponsible pet owners. Sexually intact stray cats reproduce litters of kittens, which, if not removed for socialization before 10 weeks of age, become reproducing feral adults. These feral cats fear humans and avoid them. Because they are primarily active at night, they may go unnoticed.

A stray or feral cat population may grow rapidly unless addressed promptly. Ignoring the cats does not make them go away. Simply removing the cats is not effective. The newly vacated area becomes an available ecological niche — scientifically known as the “vacuum effect” — in which a population of new cats quickly migrates. The breeding cycle, which can be year round in warm climates such as Hawaii, begins again.

In 1993, a growing population of 165 cats and kittens roamed the 88-acre CUH campus. Fortunately in that year, these CUH cats became part of a new (to Hawaii) humane management strategy to effectively control the population through spaying and neutering, known as “TNRM” (Trap, Neuter, Return, Manage). The cat management program was the result of collaboration between CUH, volunteers from the Hawaii Cat Foundation (HCF) and the Hawaiian Humane Society (HHS). CUH needed help managing the growing number of stray cats on the campus, HCF volunteered to do the trapping and provide daily care, while HHS performed the spay/neuter services for the cats.

In the program, volunteers remove the easily socialized kittens to foster homes, and later adopt them to responsible families. Using humane traps, volunteers then trap all the adults for sterilization and microchipping (for individual identification of each cat). During sterilization surgery, a small V-shaped notch is placed at the tip of each cat’s ear so that the cat can be quickly identified as sterilized. After surgery, the cats that otherwise are not available for adoption (or unsocialized) are returned to their location on campus.

TNRM methodology began in England in the 1960s and came to this country during the 1980s and ’90s. Prior to TNRM, hundreds of thousands of cats were subject to cruel and ineffective trap-and-remove (kill or euthanize) efforts on behalf of pest control and other animal eradication agencies. The Humane Society of the United States and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the nation’s largest, oldest and most respected animal welfare agencies, have for years endorsed responsible TNRM programs as the most effective and humane method of stray cat population control. HHS is an important partner of local efforts to manage feral cat populations, not just on CUH campus, but island-wide, and supports the TNRM program by providing free spay/neuter services for feral cats.

The cat management program complements CUH’s mission to offer students an education in collaborative learning that prepares them for life work and service. TNRM promotes development of responsible moral character, compassion for animals and respect for all life as part of God’s creation. Training in TNRM prepares people to humanely manage stray and feral cats in their own neighborhoods and workplaces. TNRM is a part of the solution and not a part of the problem!

The CUH cat management partnership actively continues today (special thanks to Brother Robert Hoppe and Mike Haisen of Facilities Operations and Maintenance Service). A team of dedicated volunteer caregivers continues the commitment of responsibility to the CUH cats by providing them with daily food, water and care. Caregivers are rewarded with contented purrs after a delicious meal. As if to return the favor, the cats provide CUH with efficient rodent control.

An additional benefit of neutering is the cessation of intact cat behavior annoying to humans such as urine spraying, roaming and loud mating calls stops after sterilization. Sterilized cats are also territorial, repelling new cats from moving into these areas. The managed cat population decreases over time through natural attrition. Currently, only 52 cats reside on the CUH campus — less than one-third of the cat population present in 1993, and less than one cat per acre. This is proof that TNRM is truly effective.
Students, staff, faculty and other interested parties are welcomed and encouraged to volunteer in the CUH Cat Management Program. If you are interested in more information, please contact the Hawaii Cat Foundation at 688-8822 or visit www.hicat.org.

Can’t volunteer? Other ways to help cats and your community:

• If you are a cat owner, spay or neuter your cat and keep them safe indoors
• Promptly report lost or found animals to the Hawaiian Humane Society (www.hawaiianhumane.org).
• Thinking of bringing a cat into your home? Adopt from your local shelter! Unlike most cats purchased at pet stores or through breeders, cats adopted from shelters are already spayed or neutered, vaccinated and microchipped.

Christin Matsushige, President
Hawaii Cat Foundation