What can I say to convince VetTech that the numbers are not exagerated, in Houston anyway. Where do you work?

This will be my last comment on the stray cat story so here goes. I know that my vet, who was the head vet at the Houston Zoo, told me to never list that you have free kittens to a good home. The reason, people with large snakes get the kittens for free instead of having to pay for mice and rats for food. What could possibly make this anything but abuse? When I hear that people can be animals it upsets me because animals could not possibly come up with the cruel ideas people do. Our shelter will not take black cats near Halloween due to the fact they are used in satanic and ritualistic torture and killing. Jeffrey Dahmer tortured and killed animals as did most mass murderers. I have never heard of a mass murdering animal who kills just for the fun of it. Have any of you? Wild animals kill for food not for fun. They rarely set up camp, disguise themselves, place food out and then patiently wait for an animal to show up so they can kill it, take it home and put its head on the wall.

All of that is true and totally makes the feral cat problem worse. If you can care for yours, that is great, they deserve to be there. My bigger problem is the TNR ( trap, neuter, relese) programs. We have many in my area. The cats come in to the shelter, they get altered, tested amd vaccinated. Any unhealthy animals are euthanized if they are truly feral. They are put back 3 days later. There are people who feed them daily, and look after them. The bigger problem is that we put animals back out to face the torture of people. There are kids that shoot at them, try and run them over, put out anti-freeze, sic dogs on them, kick them, and many other things. If they want to catch one and torture it, all they need is a Have-a-heart. A cat gets shot, who sees it and takes the cat to the vet??? Usually no one. And what happens if they get it to a vet???? More often than not it is put to sleep. What good did we do putting it back out??? What happens when a new cat enters the colony and it has FeLV or FIV??? Then the colony starts to get ill and they die horrid deaths.It still doesn't seem as though we have done them any favors.Now for the human side. What happens to the people who love near the feral colonies??? They have the garbage ripped open all the time, cat pee all over the cars and houses, pets terrorized, and what happens after a child is bitten by one of the ferals. Usually no one re-traps when the next rabies vaccine is due. Now the child has to go through the pain of rabies shots.I really do not think it is a good idea to put feral cats back out. If you have a house and it is away from others, then go for it. As long as the minimum care is met. That means rabies vaccines yearly if necessary to protect the public. If that cannot be done, they should be put to sleep.If there are people around that have problems with the cats and are impacted in a negative way, there needs to be a resolution.Larger freal colonies should not exist, unless the same criteria are met. They have a right to live, but they are wild animals and no one wants a colony of raccoons living next to them either. We cannot save them all and there are MANY adoptable cats that are euthanized due to lack of funds. If there was less spent on TNR programs that "drop the ball" after the release, there would be more for the adoptable ones.People can be cruel. Why do we put so many targets out there for them. I would personally euthanize a colony of 100 cats rather than seeing them shot at or die of a prolonged illness.

Excellent points. By the way though, shouldn't your shelter take in black cats...especially around Halloween...to keep them safe? If I had my way, there'd be a house full of black cats here. They're my favorite b/c they're the least liked. Their the underdogs. Mine is one of the friendliest in the world. He's loved and protected. Both cats are.