Supporting Feral Cat Colonies - Help Us Trap

As one of my hobbies, hubby and I work with local groups to help trap, neuter and return cats back to their colonies. In this process we work with a lot of people who make special trips to feed these group of cats each day. When we start at a new location, we go in and try to find out who is feeding the animals. We take an inventory of all the cats in the colony which is much easier if the managers know their colonies and are willing to communicate with us.

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson
Feral Cat Colony Goldsboro N.C

Next, we work with our local SNAP (Spay Neuter Assistance Program) to bring in the trapped cats for vetting. We work with individuals who have cats that live around their homes and with groups of volunteers to come out and feed cats in feeding stations around Goldsboro. As trappers, we run into two main problems.

First, the over feeders. These are the people who leave BAGS and I mean 4lb bags of food out each time they come for a visit. The feeding guide on the back of the bag says leave out a cup of food for your cat per day. If you put out 4lbs of food, the majority of the food is going either directly to waste, or for feeding other things such as fire ants, mice or wild animals like raccoon or opossum. This means that you are creating a problem by over feeding. Not to mention wasting money. Money that could be used to sponsor a colony. If you want to help with feeding commit to a set time with a group of people and feed proportionate to the colony size.

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Feral Cat Colony Goldsboro N.C

Our second issue comes from people who think we're hurting the cats. Sometimes people will steal traps, break traps or simply trigger the trap to avoid a cat getting caught. When we select a colony to assist with trapping we look for the snipped ears to be sure it is a good spot to trap. If there is one cat without a tip. We trap until all cats have a tip. The cats are trapped in humane traps, they are not injured by being trapped. We take them to SNAP, who sedates them before taking them out of the trap. When they are removed from the trap they are spayed or neutered, given a physical and treated for any medical conditions they may have. And finally they are vaccinated for standard cat illnesses and rabies while under sedation. They tip the top of the ear and then put them back in the trap. They stay in the trap at my house for a day or so depending on gender and how the surgery goes, then released back to their colony.

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson
Feral Cat Colony Goldsboro N.C

Just as a side note. Many of these businesses don't like for people to feed the cats around their buildings. They give us a hard time and sometimes even confront our volunteers. We had someone threatened at our station behind the Kripsy Kreme in Goldsboro just this past summer. In this particular case it was simply that the manager did not want the cats there, in other cases the reasons can be because of the way the area looks after volunteers leave food.

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson
Feral Cat Colony Goldsboro N.C

Leaving tons of food, empty cat food cans, paper plates and Styrofoam containers is not the correct way to take care of these cats. It is always a good idea to grab a pair of those pinchers for picking up trash and a trash bag to have in the car along with the standard food, water and so on in the feral kit.

The main thing to remember is that working with the business owners is much more desirable. If we understand that we need to pick up the debris instead of leaving tons of crap behind, they will be in a much better mood when they see us coming. If you want to help the animals, the best way to do that is to work together as a team with their welfare in mind. Check the egos at the door, and put the focus where it belongs. These colonies need to be managed. That means cleaning up the trash left behind and work with local rescue groups who are trying to get these cats to vets. We need to stop them from breeding so that we don't have hundreds of cats around Goldsboro.

If you'd like to get involved with helping these cats in Goldsboro or if you already help but want to coordinate with our team so that we can help these cats in a more organized way, feel free to join our Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/goldsboroferals

To get updates on when and where we're trapping be sure to "like" and choose "get notifications" on Renee's Rescues Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/reneesrescues