A New Initiative to Help Feral Cats in Lake Forest

We’ve all seen them. The battered looking cats that live on the outskirts of our neighborhoods, in parks or wooded areas, surviving by their wits and hunting prowess, the way cats did for millennia before they became house pets. They are feral cats, cats gone wild.

Most people don’t notice feral cats or care about their welfare, but sometimes people feed them. Sometimes they go further, helping the cats and the community by starting programs with the long-term goals of improving the cats’ lives while reducing their numbers. Friends of Lake Forest Animals started just such a program last December.

Alison Mills, a member of the FOLFA board of directors, says the group’s concern for feral cats was sparked by the city’s 2008 study of animal care and control issues.

“One of the things that came out of that study was that there were feral cat issues in the city,” she says.

Feral cats aren’t necessarily strays—there is a difference between cats that have lived in a home and are used to people, and those that were born to abandoned or loosely owned cats and have never become accustomed to the touch or presence of people. Feral cats are fearful of people and avoid them, all the while living in residential or commercial areas because that’s where food, water and shelter are easily available.

At first, Mills says, they didn’t even know where Lake Forest’s feral cats congregated, but they eventually made contact with two women who knew of a colony.

Communities often have a love/hate relationship with feral cats. Some people feed them. Others complain that they defecate in their yards, kill birds or spread disease. The real effect of feral cats on the environment, on feline health, and as a reservoir of diseases that can be spread to other cats or to people is unknown; feral cat expert and University of Florida professor of shelter medicine Julie Levy, DVM, says there is a lack of sound scientific data on which to form credible conclusions. But everyone can agree that it’s important to control the reproduction of feral cats.

Enter trap-neuter­-release programs. Trapping feral cats, spaying or neutering and vaccinating them, and returning them to their colony is a slow but humane and effective way to reduce the numbers of feral cats. Communities that implement the programs see a decrease in nuisance complaints and in the number of feral cats euthanized at shelters because they can’t be placed as pets.

Before FOLFA could get its program off the ground, it needed a veterinarian to perform the surgeries. Lisa Shimomura, DVM, has a low-cost spay/neuter practice—Simply Spay and Neuter—in conjunction with Lake Forest Animal Clinic. She heard about FOLFA’s search and volunteered her services for two feral cats per week.

“I really enjoy focusing on doing these surgeries and the fact that we are providing a much-needed service to the community,” she says.

Traps are set out on Tuesday nights, and the cats that enter them are brought to the clinic on Wednesday morning. Still inside their cages, they are anesthetized, then removed, spayed or neutered, vaccinated and ear-tipped to indicate that they are altered. They may also be treated for fleas or other parasites or have minor wounds or abscesses cared for. By the time they come to, they are back in the trap.

“They’re collected at the end of the day,” Mills says. “Assuming that they’re alert and awake, they’re released back to their colony that night. If they’re still a little groggy, they’ll stay in their trap overnight and go back in the morning.”

The goal, Mills says, is to start small, see what works and expand the program.

“We’re trying to tailor the program for what we have here in Lake Forest. We would hope that if anyone in the community is aware of colonies or would like to be involved or donate to some of the expenses of running this program that they contact us.”