|
The TNR (trap, neuter, release) programs that are set up will often times try to tame and re-home young kittens instead of releasing them back into the environment they came from. This isn`t usually tried with adult ferals however, as the adults tend to be much harder to tame and can revert easily. If thousands of sweet, tame housecats are put to death every year in shelters across the nation because of lack of good homes, how in the heck are semi- wild cats going to have any hopes of ending up in a good home? That`s pretty much a pipe dream. And even the wild kittens that are taken in and tamed still don`t really have any more of a chance of getting adopted for the same reason: lack of enough homes.
I can see something positive to this program, especially in urban areas. Cats do help keep down the rodent population, and have been used for this purpose for thousands of years.
People letting their pet cats roam are a different story, although that`s how ferals became a problem in the first place. In the case of an island where ferals are threatening a native species, I agree something should be done to remove the ferals from the environment. This goes for feral parrots, also. But I really do think it would be cool to look out my window and see a family of little Quakers or budgies nesting in a tree! That still doesn`t make it right, though, unfortunately.
|