Feral cat colonies court controversy
Toronto Humane Society’s neuter/return Barn Cat program lacks accountability, critics say
Standing in the back of a building’s offloading station in a Caledon industrial park, Lorena Rossi and Francesca Cicca de Marco blow kisses at two cats sitting warily on the other side of a fence.
Teddy and Cheddar are half of one of the feral cat colonies Rossi takes care of. It’s a way of managing the seemingly evergrowing and roaming outdoor cat populations. By setting up feeding stations and small insulated shelters, the pair says, the territorial cats establish a colony.
They don’t reproduce, either. Rossi’s feral cat colonies are part of “trap, neuter, return” (TNR) programs, which the City of Toronto has endorsed. Businesses in the industrial parks call Rossi to have cats that have found shelter in their yards spayed and neutered, making their presence more manageable.
Since 2010, Animal Services has been spaying and neutering feral cats brought to its shelters by those with a registered cat colony.
The Toronto Humane Society also supports TNR programs and has its own in the form of its Barn Cat program, started in 2009.
It connects unadoptable cats with farmers who would like barn cats to help manage rodents on their property.
But releasing cats into the wild is part of a debate fraught with controversy about their effect on wildlife and whether they all really belong outside.
“Birds and small mammals, generally speaking, the world over, are impacted by free-roaming cats,” said Nathalie Karvonen, executive director of the Toronto Wildlife Centre.
Ideally, pet cats should remain indoors, she explained, because of their propensity to hunt for sport.
Rossi and Cicca de Marco believe the best way to control feral cat populations is through attrition. So do the humane society and Toronto Animal Services, which say their shelters are less full as a result.
“We know that keeping feral cats in the shelter for any period of time is really difficult for them. They’re more stressed; they’re more likely to get sick,” said Barbara Steinhoff, executive director of the THS.
The only other solution, according to Animal Services program manager Mary Lou Leiher, would be to euthanize them.
“We weren’t making a dint in the feral cat population. It wasn’t solving the problem at all,” she said. “Not only that, it wasn’t a humane solution for the cats.” One group — some of whom are members of the humane society — has been waging a campaign against the Barn Cat program. It’s not so much the birds or mammals they’re worried about, it’s the cats.
The group has staged protests and a Change.org petition calling for Steinhoff and THS CEO Jacques Messier to resign, which garnered 1,260 signatures.
“There’s no oversight, there’s no transparency and there’s no accountability,” Roxanne St. Germain said in Dianne Fil’s living room. Both say cats left outdoors fall prey to native predators like coyotes, cars, bad weather and infections.
“Cats are just as important as other animals in the province, and they shouldn’t be dumped,” Fil added.
In response to complaints, last year, THS implemented policies surrounding its program.
They include a formal checklist to determine whether a cat is fit for a barn setting and one for the barn itself.
Before the cats taken in can be back on the prowl, they are to remain in an enclosed space in the barn for a couple weeks to “get used to the environment,” Steinhoff said.
She added that most of those were already followed, but the society decided to “put something formal in place so there’s no question about what we’re doing.”
Kate Martin and Fred Hayes of Mar-tinwoods Farm, a horse farm in Caledon, estimate they’ve taken in about 20 stray cats from various animal associations, most of which hide out in their storage barn.
“Livestock and cats get along phenomenally,” Hayes said inside one of his horse barns, as Enrique, a large beige cat hopped from stall to stall, snuggling up to the horses.
“We stock a lot of feed in these barns — the cats, without them, the mice would be eating the bags open and it would just be a nightmare here.”
Back at the industrial park, Rossi and Cicca de Marco point to Teddy and Cheddar’s size and apparent health. When asked what makes humans so passionate about animals — birds, small mammals or cats — Rossi’s answer is simple.
“It’s our need to nurture.”