The Feline Fix

Instead of chewing on a shoelace or scratching the living-room couch, as their domestic counterparts would do, about 100 feral cats have been tearing apart screened-in porches, urinating in children's sandboxes and spraying shrubs in the backyards of Cohoes, New York. Faced with the problem of controlling these feline terrorists, the Common Council recently settled on a humane solution: a Trap-Neuter- Return program.

The community-wide TNR plan is being coordinated by local officials and Whiskers, a no-kill shelter run by volunteers. The organization will train citizens to help animal-control officers round up the cats in Have A Heart traps. Each feline then will receive a full check-up, including sterilization, a rabies vaccination and a screening for leukemia, at a cost between $45 and $62 apiece. "Once they are sterilized, the behaviors and odors will disappear," says Mayor John T. McDonald III.

Some residents, however, were concerned about the mayor's original proposal to release the cats back into local neighborhoods. So the city ultimately decided to provide the cats with their own colony in Sherwood Forest, a public park on the edge of town, where feeding stations and shelters will be set up.

Councilman Daniel V. DeChiaro, who brought the matter before the council this spring, has volunteered to be the caretaker who feeds the cats daily at the outdoor shelter. He estimates the total expense, most of which he hopes will be covered by fundraisers, to be around $6,000.

"Many people support the Trap-Neuter-Return program and its humane approach," says Mayor McDonald, "and then, much to my dismay, there are some people who want to use the cats for target practice. I find that deplorable and unacceptable."