Clarifying my advice on cats
Charles the cat traveled 1,300 miles from his home in New Mexico to Chicago, where he was picked up as a stray. (April 16, 2010) Credit: AP
In a recent column, I told a reader how to help outdoor feral cats through the winter. I advised another reader how important it is to the environment -- and the felines themselves -- that cats should never be let outdoors.
This caused some confusion.
The reality is that since the time of the Egyptians, cats have been living feral around human settlements in every culture around the world that has kept cats and most likely will continue to do so.
Wherever humans live, we have damaged the environment -- and the feral cats that live in our cities and towns are not going to do much more harm than we have done.
The birds and other wildlife that live alongside us and our cats have adapted to the situation. Those that cannot do not live there anymore. So the removal of these cats is really not going to change things much in the population of native wildlife. Squirrels and starlings can live side by side with us, and cats and bobwhite quail and meadow voles will not live in our manicured backyards even if we got rid of every feral cat.
Trapping the feral cats and then neutering and releasing them back into the areas where they were living will reduce the population, but the cats are still living there, and even a well-fed cat will kill birds.
Now, if feral cats are living in a pristine wilderness or wildlife refuge, they should be removed from these environments, because any cats there can do a great deal of harm.
