# Feral/Stray Community and Right Decisions



## orangekitty (Aug 30, 2014)

There was a kitten that got away from a feral/stray community up the street. It cried for a couple of days until one of us neighbors finally caught it. Within two hours of catching it, we took it back to its mother and he went right to her. A neighbor feeds all the cats. Some have been trapped for altering and released.

I wanted like anything to find a home for it, but no leads. I wanted to take it to a rescue group, but our city makes ferals and strays go to the pound where they are killed in days, if a rescue group doesn't choose them on their daily visits. 

This made me sick. Is there anything else we could do, should this happen again?


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## FarmCatRescue (Aug 15, 2014)

If you're able to do so, you can always foster a kitten yourself and advertise for adopters, but not everyone is set up for this. Kittens are often not that hard to place if you do a good job of socializing it and advertising. Maybe some of the neighbors could help in some fashion. 

How does your city "make" strays go to the pound? Where I live, there are independent rescue groups that work in parallel with county animal control, but I'm not even sure what country you're in.


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## orangekitty (Aug 30, 2014)

*Thanks*

I thought about fostering, but didn't because of a first fostering attempt. You see, this is the second time this has happened. I adopted the first one and he is healthy as a horse, half grown now, and very loved. At first, I tried to find him a home, and finally could not. He is my forever baby now.

Had there been no mommy cat, someone not feeding them, and no trap and release attempts, I would have attempted a foster anyway. 

I am in the US. I have been told by a local rescue group that they can't take strays. They have to go to animal control first. They make daily visits to animal control to pick out the "adoptable" and the rest are shortly put down. I have considered contacting someone in my town to protest this. I find it to be ridiculous where kittens are concerned, especially.


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## FarmCatRescue (Aug 15, 2014)

I suspect that the rescue group's policy has more to do with their being a no kill (I assume) shelter than it has to do with local laws. These groups provide a valuable service by giving adoptable cats more of a chance to be adopted rather than euthanized, but what the rescue groups have to avoid is having their facilities become full of poorly socialized cats that people won't adopt or that people will return to the shelter because they're too hard to deal with. It's brutally pragmatic, but those are the calculations they have to make to save the most lives. 

By fostering and advertising, you're providing additional help by keeping more cats out an already overburdened system. 

To change the situation, you have to put pressure on politicians to spend more money on local public shelters so that they have space for more animals and better outreach programs to encourage adoptions. Some are mismanaged, but many are woefully underfunded. 

I understand how hard it is to give up fosters. It's happened to all of us.


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## orangekitty (Aug 30, 2014)

*Reply*

No, it is what I am telling you. I have spoken to more than one rescue group and the pound. I've also spoken to a vet clinic about it. Strays or ferals have to go to the pound first. The rescue groups have to go there for any desired pick-ups. In fact, some have expressed distaste over the policy. It stinks for adoptable kittens and that is why I am probably going to complain.


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## Marcia (Dec 26, 2010)

Silvestris said:


> *Kittens are often not that hard to place if you do a good job of socializing it and advertising.*


 This^^^^.
Do a good write up and take GREAT pictures.
Don't be afraid to take pics with props like flowers around their necks, bandanas or stuffed animals beside it. THESE SELL! We have a girl that takes GREAT shelter pics and it brings people in.


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## FarmCatRescue (Aug 15, 2014)

orangekitty said:


> Strays or ferals have to go to the pound first. The rescue groups have to go there for any desired pick-ups. In fact, some have expressed distaste over the policy. It stinks for adoptable kittens and that is why I am probably going to complain.


This is a very strange policy. Can we ask what municipality this is? One reason I ask is that there is an organization known as Alley Cat Allies that specializes in feral/stray cat laws. It's hard for me to imagine how a law can be written that would forbid rescue organizations from taking in strays. Would that forbid anyone from taking in a stray cat?

Alley Cat Allies can focus national attention on places with bad cat policies, and they have at least one full-time attorney who could determine whether this is the law or just some particular office's regulation. Officials may ignore one complaint, but when they start getting thousands of complaints about a bad policy, they will sometimes back down or change it. 

There was one county near where I live that, at one point, started going after TNR colony caretakers by threatening to fine them for any cats that didn't have current rabies vaccinations if they couldn't somehow prove that the cat was dead. As I understand it, this was a short-lived effort that generated a lot of backlash.


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## deanna79 (Aug 13, 2014)

I brought in 4 feral kittens around 2 pounds to the humane society and was turned away because they were not under 2 pounds. I even offered to take them home if no one adopted them for 2-3 weeks. They said "No!" I too, have called all the No kill shelter you around my area and all are full and not taking any. The only thing I could do was after they have been TNR was to provide food and shelter for them should they decide to come to my house after I release them. They do come to my house to eat twice a day and they seem happy. That is all I and you could do. Just make sure they have been fixed and if you can feed them that would be great. The cats that have been TNR have been vaccinated for rabies,flea treament and deworm, it's free for where I live so this is good. But no shelters would take them so this is all I can do. I put litter boxes in my garden and they learn to use so that is all I can do for them. Give them a good brand of food and they won't go potty too much as it does not have fillers. I currently feed Tastes of the wild and Blue Wilderness.


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## FarmCatRescue (Aug 15, 2014)

The only other things you can do with the cats living outside is to try to keep them as socialized to people as possible (by petting and handling) and directly facilitate adoptions yourself. This means taking good pictures of them, giving them temporary names, placing ads, responding to inquiries, and evaluating potential adopters. The older they get, the harder they will be to place, so it's a good idea to act quickly.


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## orangekitty (Aug 30, 2014)

*Reply*



Silvestris said:


> This is a very strange policy. Can we ask what municipality this is? One reason I ask is that there is an organization known as Alley Cat Allies that specializes in feral/stray cat laws. It's hard for me to imagine how a law can be written that would forbid rescue organizations from taking in strays. Would that forbid anyone from taking in a stray cat?
> 
> Alley Cat Allies can focus national attention on places with bad cat policies, and they have at least one full-time attorney who could determine whether this is the law or just some particular office's regulation. Officials may ignore one complaint, but when they start getting thousands of complaints about a bad policy, they will sometimes back down or change it.
> 
> There was one county near where I live that, at one point, started going after TNR colony caretakers by threatening to fine them for any cats that didn't have current rabies vaccinations if they couldn't somehow prove that the cat was dead. As I understand it, this was a short-lived effort that generated a lot of backlash.


 Thanks for this information! I will Google Alley Cat Allies, unless you have contact information. I am in the southeast. 

Thanks to everyone else for their replies, too.


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