Barn Cats Out of Control!
November 28, 2022
The main mission of Community Cats of Benzie County (CCBC) is to reduce the number of unaltered, free-roaming, stray, feral and/or abandoned domestic cats in Benzie County. The primary method we use is trapping, neutering and then releasing (TNR) adult cats back to their communities. That typically means feral populations that may have a caretaker, but are unsocialized and avoid human contact.
Recently, while driving down a rural road, one of our volunteers, noticed a “Free Cute Kittens” sign along the road in front of a farmhouse. Through our TNR program, we often end up with kittens young enough to be socialized and adopted into loving families. While not our main mission, we foster and adopt out over 125 kittens every year!
With this in mind, our volunteer Kathy, stopped at the farm house to understand the situation, and hopefully help the residents understand why allowing cats to breed is not in the best interest of the community. What she found was a family that had started with a few friendly unaltered barn cats that quickly exploded into a population of over 30 cats! Since cats can become pregnant as early as four months of age, it’s easy to imagine how quickly a cat population can get out of hand! And how it would continue to be a problem until the cats were neutered.
It was clear that the family was taking care of the cats—providing food, water and shelter in their barn. And most of the cats were tame and very affectionate. This is not always the case with “barn cats.” The job of working cats is typically to keep down the local rodent population and it is frequently assumed that they will keep themselves fed on just the rodents, but that is often not true. If not provided with nutritious food and water, they can become sick, and are also more likely to hunt other wildlife such as birds.
CCBC was very willing to help! The family knew that the cats should be neutered, but with over 30 cats and kittens, it was now well out of their budget to do so. Their solution was to give away cute unaltered kittens, but obviously this approach wouldn’t control the problem. Kathy explained that CCBC could neuter them and stop the population explosion. They also had to agree to stop adopting the kittens out until after they had all been neutered. The family was grateful and motivated to take advantage of CCBC’s offer.
The next week the family showed up at CCBC with four cages crammed full of felines of varying sizes and ages! The first order of business was for the veterinarian to examine the cats to assess their health. For the most part, the cats were in good shape, but a few were suffering from bad ear mite infestations and one had a serious eye infection which were treated. The cats were then all neutered and monitored until they could be sent back to the farm.
The family did put back out the “Free Cute Kittens” sign, but now we know that sign will be put away after they are able to place the altered kittens on hand, and they will not be adding more to the local population after this generation.
Please help us save more kittens and cats with a generous donation to Community Cats of Benzie County. Because we are an all-volunteer organization, 100% of your donation goes to helping the cats in our community!
