anaging feral catsSeptember 28, 2011Dear Sir,I should like to respond to the concerns raised in yesterday’s Royal Gazette (Wednesday 28th Sept) by Gardener in his letter to you headed “Problem with Feral Cats”, and to provide some additional information which the general public might find helpful. I sincerely empathize with Gardener’s desire to enjoy his own property; our website www.bfab.bm has a section that offers advice on humane ways of deterring cats from your garden. The advice given addresses your first listed concerns of planting beds being used as toilets, unburied and aromatic faeces.Spraying of walls by male cats and being woken in the night by the sounds of cats fighting are both indicative of unneutered cats in the immediate area, the solution to which is to have BFAB come and trap, neuter, return any remaining breeding cats. A solution of 25 percent white vinegar and water is very effective in neutralizing cat spraying and urine if it can be located. Once neutered you will not hear the cat fighting as that is a territorial response during mating, which generally stops with sterilisation. When BFAB works on a colony (the feeding stations assist greatly in ensuring the cats are able to be trapped) we may not always get every single cat, but by having volunteers who feed daily, we can be advised if a cat still needs to be trapped, and also whether any are in need of veterinary attention.A Bermuda without BFAB would result in:1. Lots and lots of kittens all maturing and then having their own kittens (average female has 15 per year while males can father up to 18 kittens per night)2. Lots of uncared for cats looking skinny and unhealthy3. Bags of trash being scattered all over the neighborhoods4. Increase in dead cats on the roadsPlease note that BFAB does not fix people’s private or tame cats; the vets and SPCA deal with tame cats. If BFAB traps a cat and finds a microchip or tattoo denoting that a cat is owned, the cat will be returned to its owner, without surgery, if we can locate them. All unowned cats that BFAB spays/neuters have the small tip of the left ear removed during surgery so that all sterilized cats are then obvious in our traps and will not go for surgery twice. Should someone’s tame cat be trapped by mistake (which is very rare but when you are dealing with thousands it is a possibility), the worst that can happen is that it is fixed and returned. The only exception to this is if a cat is found to have one of two terminal illnesses which could still be transmitted to other cats; these cats are euthanised to protect the health of all cats.In terms of lizards and birds being targeted as a supplementary food source, a well fed cat is much less likely to be hunting, although some hunting is instinctive. We note that with the cumulative actions of BFAB over the last 20 years, whereby some 18,000 cats have been fixed (approximately a thousand per year) preventing the birth of hundreds of thousands of kittens, that the Island’s bird numbers have been reported as being up.In addition to this advice, if you would be willing to leave your name and address on our voicemail (number 291-1737) one of our trappers will come to your location to provide more specific advice, and I deeply apologize that your call was not returned. We are a small group of dedicated volunteers who have been working to control and reduce the unwanted cat population since 1992You wondered how many volunteers at the Bermuda Feline Assistance Bureau (BFAB) feed these hungry cats near to their own homes. I can assure you that our volunteers have as many cats as they can comfortably accommodate at their own homes; some feed at home, and then go out to other nearby locations as well.In order to respond to your other points, I beg your patience for a little history as it gives important perspective. Both dogs and cats are invasive species however there is legislation that directs that all dogs will be spayed or neutered unless the owner has a breeding license. BFAB is asking for legislation for cats along similar lines because having fixed thousands of feral cats and now working on the stray / back door populations of cats, we have determined that the supply of cats is largely coming from the domestic population. And while we appreciate that not everyone follows the law, and that enforcement of legislation is expensive, at least the public would be clear about the fact that they should be responsible and spay and neuter their cats before they breed – this begins at five months of age for females and six months for males. Spaying and neutering also has health benefits for a cat, reducing the chances of a territorial encounter where they might be injured. With the current domestic resupply of kittens fueling population growth, the SPCA has 600 cats surrendered to them and our human population can only absorb half as to adoptions, with the remainder having to be euthanised by other organisations.The Bermuda Feline Assistance Bureau is the only organization in Bermuda that is dealing with issues associated with the cat over-population, with our mission being “to control and reduce the unwanted cat population in Bermuda by non-lethal means”. Having worked our program over 20 years now, (and goodness knows how many cats would have been born without our program!) we have effectively sterilised the truly feral cat population, and are now working on the back door and stray population, however, it is clear that we will have to keep operating because there is no legislation. We have campaigned for it for some time. The problem is a people problem fundamentally.BFAB did not create the problem of feral cats in Bermuda, nor did the cats just drop from the sky. Rather we saw a problem that no one else was addressing and set up a charity to address it. While not solving the problem, we feel we have contributed significantly to managing it in hopes legislation will become a reality soon. When people call us, (we get about 20-30 calls a week) they usually know how the cats came to be there, and the universal story is that someone was irresponsible at some time. BFAB works to help those who love cats, those who, like Gardener, are experiencing problems, and even those who do not care for cats at all because BFAB are continuously reducing the population of unwanted cats. After all, it’s not the cats’ fault that no one fixed its Mum or Dad!To conclude, this is a community issue, and we need everyone to do their part by:1. Getting their pet cat spayed or neutered as soon as possible.2. If finances are an issue; talk to your vet about a payment plan.3. You can also ask your vet to terminate a feline pregnancy if it is safe to do so.4. If there are unfixed strays or back door cats that are un-owned, call BFAB.5. Adopt a kitten from the SPCA and save a life, but be sure (again!) to get it fixed.BFAB would like to thank Gardener for writing and allowing us this opportunity to educate and respond. We would also like to thank the three animal hospitals who have supported us and worked long hours to accommodate us over 20 years.BFAB is not funded by the Bermuda Government and its finances will increasingly depend on public and corporate donations in future. Anyone wishing to support us, we welcome donations either online or sent to P O Box WK 91, Warwick WK BX. We also have an on-going membership drive to raise funds, and would encourage you to ask your MP about legislation, the long-term solution to the issue of feral cats.VALERIE SHERWOODVice PresidentBermuda Feline Assistance Bureau