Feral cats a problem in neighborhood

To The Eagle:

Recently, an effort was made to trap a large number of feral and stray cats in a neighborhood on Columbia Street in Cathlamet. These cats are the result of irresponsible neighbors who would not spay and neuter their pets and then moved out and left several cats behind. These cats have continued to breed.

Because of this, my aunt has ended up feeding many homeless and feral cats over the last four years or so. This has cost her many hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in cat food as well as a huge amount of worry and stress over the condition of the animals and the expense of caring for them. These people have now moved a few houses away and are continuing to let their cats breed without regard for the animals or the other people in the neighborhood.

The recent trapping effort involved multiple trips from volunteers working for a Seattle-based feral cat trapping organization and a lot of coordination and organization from others. These cats were taken to a free spay and neuter clinic in Seattle, and the feral cats who were not adoptable were returned to my aunt’s house, where she will continue to have to feed them at significant personal expense for the forseeable future.

A number of the cats were pregnant, some of them in need of additional medical care and all were heavily infested with fleas. There has been a significant investment in both time and money to deal with this situation, much more than it would have cost to have a cat spayed to begin with.

Allowing cats to breed and then neglecting them and leaving them for others to take care of is cruel to the animals and an unfair burden to the neighborhood and people who end up caring for them. This whole situation could have been avoided if the animals had been fixed. There are low-cost spay and neuter options and there is no excuse for not getting an animal altered.

In short, if you can’t afford to spay or neuter your pet and provide it with basic veterinary care, then you shouldn’t have an animal.

Melinda Pride

Philomath, OR