If your neighborhood is like mine, you can't go a night without hearing a cat fight, or a cat "fight". Granted half the time it's probably my cats... Feral cat colonies are taking over the world. Have you even heard of a feral cat colony. You probably have a colony within a couple of blocks of your house. Animalshelter.org estimates that there are 125,000 feral cats in the Denver metro area. Trailer parks and junk yards are the leaders when it comes to the size of the colonies. One major impact that most people don't think of is the impact a feral colony has on local wildlife. Cats are natural born hunters and will kill because its natural for them, not because they're hungry. My two cats alone killed at least 10 birds this year between the two of them. And that's just the ones I saw. That's two cats that are 50% outdoor cats, imagine what 125,000 full time outdoor cats can do. Another problem is the disease that a colony can carry with them. In June of this year in Boulder Colorado a cat had the bubonic plague. Most cats in a colony do not see the doctor often, so disease could easily get out of hand. There is a great program out there called Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) that is a humane way to keep the feral colonies population in check. After the cats are fixed they tend to get fatter and have a longer lifespan. Anyways, that was just a few thoughts on an observation from my neighborhood. Whats going on in your neighborhood?
Trevor
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