Feral Cat Population Overwhelming Animal Welfare Organizations

Picture this:

You get home from work, turn on the lights and unexpectedly find a cat curled up in your home. What if it’s diseased? What if it won’t move? What do you do next?

Hugo Navarro with Animal Services told ABC-7 the best thing for people to do is to call their office or get a hold of a cat trap.

Cat traps are 100% safe for animals and are issued for free by Animal Services every Monday.

An average of 26 cats per day are brought into Animal Services every day. Most end up euthenized.

“The overpopulation of pets is tremendous,” said Navarro.

People have a couple of options once they find a feral cat making a habit of getting in and around their property.

They can either call Animal Services so a staff member can set up a cat trap in the area, set up a cat trap themselves and bring in the cat to Animal Services, or they can take the trapped cat to a rescue organization.

Another option is taking the cat to a clinic that is part of the Feral Cat Program. That’s a network of clinics that provide a limited amount of spay or neutering services for strays. Due to budget cuts, participating clinics have had to scale down their free services to five per month.

Once they’re fixed, cats are released back where they came from, preventing more kittens from ending up at shelters.