Custer Cats
Milwaukee's McGovern Park area
The Custer Cats website is dedicated to a colony of feral cats that live in the area along Custer Ave. just west of McGovern Park in Milwaukee Wi.. I, along with my neighbor have been caring for a group of feral cats in the area for several years, but it wasn't until the winter of 2007 that we started coordinating our efforts, and in the spring of 2008, we teamed up with the Wisconsin Humane Society's Community Cat Caregivers Program.
Free roaming feral cats are a reality in every big city, there have been efforts to control the populations of these feral cats, and the most successful to date is the Trap/Neuter/Return (TNR) policy, also called Trap/Neuter/Vaccinate/Return (TNVR). Due to the territorial nature of cats, once established, they will defend their territory, but if the cats are removed from a given area, new cats will move in, in what is known as the vacuum effect. What TNR does, is establishes a healthy population that is no longer able to produce more kittens, thereby eventually lowering the population.
Community Cat Caregivers Program
The Community Cat Caregivers Program provides volunteers training, and free veterinary services for feral and unsocialized "backyard" cats. This program runs what is usually called "Trap/Neuter/Return" policy, in which volunteers from across the city will humanly trap feral cats in their neighborhood, take them into the Humane Society for the medical treatment and return them to the location they came from. We also agree to feed and provide basic care for our group, called a colony, of cats.
Benefits of Trap Neuter Return
The TNR programs around the country have proven to be the most effective population control measure in urban environments. Trap & Kill, Trap & Remove and ignoring the problem have been tried for centuries, and no where have they been able to keep up with the population explosion caused by removing cats from an area. A single male and female can produce 420,000 cats over a seven year period. The only effective way of population control, not to mention the most humane treatment is by the use of TNR. This also keeps the rodent population from exploding.
What we are doing is getting a stable, healthy population, that is cared for and supervised, but will not be able to reproduce. We begin by trapping the cats, the Humane Society then provides medical care, which includes the spay or neuter surgery, blood tests to check for communicable diseases, vaccinations against rabies, get basic medical treatment and they are microchipped. This microchip is registered to us, and we accept responsibility for that cat. Cats that are found to have a contagious disease or are unhealthy, are humanly euthanized. The cats also have one ear cropped for easy identification as a member of the TNR program.
For cats that are tame and socialized enough or are kittens, will be tested to see of they are adoption candidates. Ideally, all cats would have a good home, but most feral cats, even when caught as older kittens (more than 6 weeks or so), will not be candidates for adoption. These cats are returned to the location where they were caught, and after a short stay to recover from the surgery, they are released. These cats usually stay in that area and defend their territory from outsiders, and once we are able to take all the cats in the area through the TNR program, we will have a healthy colony of cats.
Other benefits of the TNR program are the end of annoying mating behavior like spraying, fighting and yowling. It also ends the continual cycle of new kittens every few months. the surgeries lower the risk of some cancers, controls the spread of other diseases and the cats usually become tamer, some to the point that after a spay or neuter, will make acceptable house pets.
Does Trap Neuter Return work?
TNR has been practiced in several cities, to great effect, here are some examples.
- San Diego Feral Cat Coalition
"After 4 1/2 years we've been able to sterilize over 7000 cats. The county Dept. of Animal Control shelters report a decrease of almost 50% in cat impounds and euthanasias since the FCC was formed. Other local shelters report similar declines, sometimes complaining of a shortage of available kittens for adoption. The FCC method works!" - Campus Cat Coalition (University of Texas)
"Our program has been in effect since 1995. We have trapped/neutered/released 64 adult feral cats; removed/socialized/homed 71 kittens and removed/homed 14 friendly strays. We have not seen any new litters of kittens in the past 2 years. We are currently at a zero population growth rate! Can't argue with those statistics, can you?" - Cal Poly Cat Program
Started in 1992 with approximately 500 cats, colony is stabilized with around 100 remaining. - Stanford Cat Network
Founded in 1989 with an estimated 500 cats. The population has declined by two-thirds and the remainder are healthy cats, thanks to the TNR program - AFCAT (Aggie Feral Cat Alliance of Texas)
In existence for around 21 months, the Aggie's feral cats number has been reduced by one-third, and no feral kittens have been trapped for twelve months.
What can you do to help?
In Milwaukee, city ordinances need to be changed! The official policy of Milwaukee is to ignore the problem, and if someone complains, catch and kill the feral cats. The Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission (MADACC) carries out this procedure at a cost of about $2 million tax dollars. If we can get local ordinance changes that will allow the recognition of TNR, it will not only save the city money, but allows the establishment of a healthy population instead of the failed policies that allow the unfettered reproduction with a lack of medical care. So please take a moment to contact Milwaukee's city officials and tell them you support the Humane Society's Trap/Neuter/Return program.