The Negative Impacts of Outdoor Cats and How to Combat Overpopulation

The Negative Impacts of Outdoor Cats and How to Combat Overpopulation

By: Jordyn Fink & Danielle Tackett

Introduction

While dogs are renowned as man’s best friend, another pet has become a beloved addition to many American households in recent years: cats. You either love them or know someone who loves them. Cats can be fun, loving animals to add to the family, but their presence is not exclusively positive—outdoor cats have been rapidly reproducing and pose serious dangers to the environment. 

Background

In the last forty years, the number of domestic housecats in the United States has tripled.[1]There are approximately 30 to 40 million “community” cats in the U.S., which includes both stray and feral cats.[2]Only 2% of these community cats have been spayed or neutered, and the remaining unfixed cats produce roughly 80% of kittens born every year.[3]While approximately 85% of the pet cats in the U.S. are spayed or neutered, many of those cats have litters before they are fixed.[4]This has resulted in a serious overpopulation of cats in communities, which presents issues for cats’ wellbeing, as well as grave environmental impacts.

Issue

Cats are considered an invasive species, and have been linked to the extinction of sixty-three species.[5]They are a threat to an astonishing 430 species,[6]birds in particular, killing over a billion birds per year.[7]While feral cats—those that are unowned and are unsocialized to humans—pose the biggest threat to these species, any cat that is allowed outdoors is a danger to wildlife.[8]Cats are opportunistic hunters, meaning they will stalk and hunt any prey they come across, regardless of whether they are hungry.[9]Any prey that comes into an outdoor cat’s vicinity is at risk—the more cats that are outside, the more animals that are at risk. 

Cats also reproduce at an alarming rate. A female cat can start reproducing at only six months old and can breed every four months.[10]If cities and communities do not take measures to reduce the repopulation of all outdoor cats, more animals will be at risk of becoming endangered or extinct due to cats’ hunting activities. 

Moreover, cats that venture outdoors are exposed to diseases that may be passed to other cats. For example, outdoor cats may carry and spread fatal diseases such as feline leukemia, feline AIDS, and upper respiratory infections.[11]They are also more likely to pick up parasites outdoors, such as fleas, ticks, ear mites, and intestinal worms.[12]The more unfixed cats that are left outside to freely reproduce, the more cats that are exposed to these harmful and potentially life-threatening ailments. 

Lastly, a large population of outdoor cats has a negative impact on local shelters. An abundance of outdoor cats may cause more to enter shelters due to feral adult cats and kittens being trapped and brought there.[13]Feral cats are not socialized to humans, which may result in them being unable to be adopted, thus raising euthanasia rates for these cats.[14]Moreover, adoptable cats may also be subject to euthanasia if space runs out at shelters from the influx of outdoor cats.[15]To reduce the strain on local shelters, and thus the preventable deaths of cats, procedures must be implemented to reduce the reproduction of outdoor cats. 

Solution

While many communities experience an overwhelming feral cat population and feel the negative effects of same, there are different solutions that can address the problem. One option is to simply remove feral cats from local populations. With this approach, feral cats are simply dropped off at shelters, despite the fact that they are unsocialized to humans and therefore cannot be adopted.[16]As a result, this method appears indifferent to the fact that those feral cats which are removed and put into animal shelters are typically euthanized.[17]Although this may reduce feral cat populations, it is a horribly inhumane option to address a problem that has other solutions. 

Another option that decreases feral cat populations in a humane way is trap-neuter-return (TNR) programs wherein feral cats are taken in, neutered or spayed, and then released back into their environment.[18]By preventing the existing feral cat population from reproducing, this practice stabilizes cat populations and steadily decreases them over time.[19]Alley Cat Advocates, a Louisville based TNR organization, has focused their efforts on specific zip codes wherein feral cat populations have become the most concentrated.[20]One such zip code being targeted by the organization is 40215 wherein 2019, 1119 unowned stray cats were turned into shelters.[21]By 2011, Alley Cat Advocates was able to successfully spay/neuter 800 cats in the 40215 zip code which resulted in a 51% reduction in the number of unowned stray cats turned into shelters.[22]

One obstacle TNR programs must overcome in order to maintain viability is distinguishing between new feral cats and ones who have already been through the system.[23]These animals can be very difficult to get close to because of their lack of trust in humans, so without some sort of easily identifiable marker indicating a cat has already been neutered/spayed and returned to the community, the program could mistakenly waste funds by trapping them again and prepping for a moot procedure.[24]Eartipping has been the most effective and universally accepted methods to identify cats who have already been through a TNR program.[25]This method removes ¼ of an inch from one the cat’s ears, making it easily visible from a distance and less likely to cause injury when released back into their community like an ear tag or collar might.[26]

Conclusion

In conclusion, feral cat populations can easily reproduce at rates which overtake local communities and can wipe out other animal species. While this overpopulation can bring harm to the environment, euthanizing feral cats is an inhumane and barbaric solution to the issue. Trap-neuter-return programs control cat populations while offering a humane resolution, which promotes harmony between all species in local communities.

[1]Cats and Other Invasives, American Bird Conservancy(last visited Nov. 6, 2021), https://abcbirds.org/threat/cats-and-other-invasives/. 

[2]Outdoor Cats FAQ,Humane Society of the U.S.(last visited Nov. 6, 2021), https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/outdoor-cats-faq#start.

[3]Id.

[4]Id. 

[5]Tim S. Doherty et al., Invasive predators and global biodiversity loss, PNAS 11261, (Oct. 4, 2016), https://abcbirds.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Doherty-et-al.-2016-Invasive-predators-and-global-biodiversity-loss.pdf.

[6]Id. 

[7]Cats and Other Invasives, supra note 1.

[8]Matt Morrison, Killer cats: The invasive species in your backyard, CBS News(Oct. 27, 2018, 7:00 AM), https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cats-invasive-species-in-your-backyard-cbsn-originals/.

[9]Cats are neither mean nor cruel, DW (Aug. 8, 2018), https://www.dw.com/en/cats-are-neither-mean-nor-cruel/a-45002369.

[10]Id. 

[11]Indoor Cats vs. Outdoor Cats, American Humane(Aug. 25, 2016), https://www.americanhumane.org/fact-sheet/indoor-cats-vs-outdoor-cats/. 

[12]Id. 

[13]Outdoor Cats FAQ, supra note 2.

[14]Id. 

[15]Id.          

[16]Paws, Feral Cats, https://www.paws.org/resources/feral-cats/ (last visited Nov. 6, 2021).

[17]Id.

[18]Alley Cat Allies, Why Trap-Neuter-Return Feral Cats? The Case for TNR (2017), https://www.alleycat.org/resources/why-trap-neuter-return-feral-cats-the-case-for-tnr/.

[19]Id.

[20]Alley Cat Advocates, History, https://alleycatadvocates.org/about-aca/ (last visited Nov. 4, 2021).

[21]Alley Cat Advocates, Alley Cat Neighborhoods Program, https://alleycatadvocates.org/community-programs/neighborhoods-petsmart-grant/ (last visited Nov. 6, 2021).

[22]Id.

[23]Alley Cat Advocates, Eartipping, https://alleycatadvocates.org/eartipping/ (last visited Nov. 6, 2021).

[24]Id.

[25]Id.

[26]Id.