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 Pork Fat is my Favorite
Posts: 3791
    
Location: The Oklahoma plains. | KatieMac88 - 2015-06-26 10:40 AM quikchik - 2015-06-26 7:55 AM When one shows up here, we live trap IMMEDIATELY and spay/neuter. See if there is a feral cat group in your area. They will sometimes come & trap, spay/neuter, rerelease at your house. Kittens that are young enough to, they rehome as domestic cats. Some pretty wild kittens will come around pretty quickly. The one near here is Friends of Feral Felines. They "tip" or cut of the end of the ear, so you know which ones are fixed & which are not. This is what I was going to suggest too. Trap, spay/neuter, and release and get the kittens adopted out. There are programs that help with the spay to make it lower cost.
We volunteer for the Oklahoma Alliance for Animals and take many of their ferral cats. In turn, if one shows up here, they spay or nueter it for free for us and we release them.
I am on my own personal mission to spay or nueter any animal I get my hands on. I wish horse owners would do the same. I only have one colt that ever left our house ungelded and that was becuase we didnt think him worth the money to even cut as he had a genetic soundness issue and needed put down. |
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 Lady Di
Posts: 21556
Location: Oklahoma | streakysox - 2015-06-26 12:09 AM
Get rid of them somehow, you are leaving your horse's open for possible cases of EPM. This has been linked to cat pee and poop in the hay.
That hasn't been proven....it's only a theory. The only animal PROVEN by research of carrying the S. Neurona protozoa that causes EPM (there are several strains of S. Neurona, but not all cause EPM) is an opossum. Scientists and researchers SUSPECT barn cats, raccoons and other animals of transmission, but so far, that's only a suspicion and not a proven fact. I figure if barn cats carried it, we'd have had the kind of epidemic way back when that we have currently....everyone's always had barn cats. The problem with the spread of EPM (in my opinion) is the fact that PETA has pretty much destroyed the fur trade, and possums used to be trapped and sold for fur. Now their population is totally out of control and they're everywhere in the southern US and there's nothing that hunts and eats them. Then you have people feeding them and rescuing the babies because they're "cute and don't hurt anything". Ugh
As for the original poster, I'm kinda in the same predicament. I have tried a live trap but all it catches is a couple of the tame ones. The wild ones are smart enough not to go in it. :/ |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 316
| You EAT cats?! What in the heck... yuck yuck and yuck.. Trap, spay/neuter and release to keep mice etc. down. Sometimes after you trap and release them though they will wander away so that could cut down the amount as well |
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Lady Di
Posts: 21556
Location: Oklahoma | streakysox - 2015-06-26 12:09 AM
Get rid of them somehow, you are leaving your horse's open for possible cases of EPM. This has been linked to cat pee and poop in the hay.
That hasn't been proven....it's only a theory. The only animal PROVEN by research of carrying the S. Neurona protozoa that causes EPM (there are several strains of S. Neurona, but not all cause EPM) is an opossum. Scientists and researchers SUSPECT barn cats, raccoons and other animals of transmission, but so far, that's only a suspicion and not a proven fact. I figure if barn cats carried it, we'd have had the kind of epidemic way back when that we have currently....everyone's always had barn cats. The problem with the spread of EPM (in my opinion) is the fact that PETA has pretty much destroyed the fur trade, and possums used to be trapped and sold for fur. Now their population is totally out of control and they're everywhere in the southern US and there's nothing that hunts and eats them. Then you have people feeding them and rescuing the babies because they're "cute and don't hurt anything". Ugh
As for the original poster, I'm kinda in the same predicament. I have tried a live trap but all it catches is a couple of the tame ones. The wild ones are smart enough not to go in it. :/ |
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Lady Di
Posts: 21556
Location: Oklahoma | streakysox - 2015-06-26 12:09 AM
Get rid of them somehow, you are leaving your horse's open for possible cases of EPM. This has been linked to cat pee and poop in the hay.
That hasn't been proven....it's only a theory. The only animal PROVEN by research of carrying the S. Neurona protozoa that causes EPM (there are several strains of S. Neurona, but not all cause EPM) is an opossum. Scientists and researchers SUSPECT barn cats, raccoons and other animals of transmission, but so far, that's only a suspicion and not a proven fact. I figure if barn cats carried it, we'd have had the kind of epidemic way back when that we have currently....everyone's always had barn cats. The problem with the spread of EPM (in my opinion) is the fact that PETA has pretty much destroyed the fur trade, and possums used to be trapped and sold for fur. Now their population is totally out of control and they're everywhere in the southern US and there's nothing that hunts and eats them. Then you have people feeding them and rescuing the babies because they're "cute and don't hurt anything". Ugh
As for the original poster, I'm kinda in the same predicament. I have tried a live trap but all it catches is a couple of the tame ones. The wild ones are smart enough not to go in it. :/ |
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 Expert
Posts: 1273
Location: South Dakota | I'm in the same boat, I think we had around 40 at our place awhile back and I'd say we must have around 25 now. That is way too many cats by the way. I was taking the ones I liked to the vet to get fixed but they'd always be the ones that would end up missing. |
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BHW's Simon Cowell
Location: The Saudia Arabia of Wind Energy, Western Oklahoma | I have the same problem. Probably 20 cats and only one I can catch and he is the reason for all of them. I think he is breeding them all. |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | ksjackofalltrades - 2015-06-26 1:10 PM I have the same problem. Probably 20 cats and only one I can catch and he is the reason for all of them. I think he is breeding them all.
Well catch that sucker and get him/she nuetered/spayed |
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 Keep those crap slapping tails away!
Posts: 8871
Location: Around here somewhere... | hotpaints - 2015-06-25 6:11 PM
First, quit thinking of them as domestic cats. Think of them as wildlife, like coyotes, bobcats, racoons, etc., that will hurt you and spread disease. Of course, you already know your first mistake was to feed them.
Now, you trap and euthanize. Or you can shoot or trap and eat them.
Flame away, but as Americans we waste a lot of valuable resourses such as horses, cats, and dogs. Plenty of other people that would love to have our wasted protein sources.
Yup. Treat them like you would any other predator. What would you do with a fox? |
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Sideways Riding Expert
Posts: 11371
Location: ND--it snows, it floods, it snows, it floods | I can send you some coyotes and fishers to take care of your kitty population.....we do not have alot of strays up here thanks to the fishers. They can do a number on cats in no time. We have 1 out door cat that gets to sleep in the porch when it's nasty out otherwise she's an outside cat all the time. Owls will take care of the kittens too...had that happen once. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: Oklahoma | Yikes! I was in this same situation a couple years ago! The couple momma cats I could catch got fixed and I had to "eliminate" the rest. It was not fun, nor did I enjoy it but it had to be done. One extremely aggressive female jumped on my 8 week old heeler pup and literally clawed out one of her eyes. As a result, her surgery to remove the eye was over $300. That was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak! I sat in the barn with a 22 over the weekend and eliminated everything I couldn't catch. Poison is an option too but I feel just shooting them and ending them quickly is the most humane way. |
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BHW's Simon Cowell
Location: The Saudia Arabia of Wind Energy, Western Oklahoma | Southtxponygirl - 2015-06-26 1:12 PM ksjackofalltrades - 2015-06-26 1:10 PM I have the same problem. Probably 20 cats and only one I can catch and he is the reason for all of them. I think he is breeding them all. Well catch that sucker and get him/she nuetered/spayed
Yes but there will be another just like him that will step up to do the job!! LOL
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  Northern Chocolate Queen
Posts: 16576
Location: ND | I must be cold but why waste your time and money trapping, spaying/neutering a bunch of wild kittens? They are not pets, they're wild disease spreading cats (and SERIOIUSLY I am a cat lover!!!!) I would be getting rid of all of them & if you want cats get one or two tame kittens and have them spayed/neutered so the population is limited to them. |
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Expert
Posts: 1549
Location: Southwest Louisiana | Believe me, I have been searching for a place or program around here that would spay feral cats. I'd bring them all in somehow. But there is nothing at all around here. Around Deridder and Lake Charles, the closest place that does it is Lafayette. That's almost a 2 hour drive. Found a place online that'll send discount vouchers for vet's that'll accept them. I did get 4 vouchers for a vet I've never used, but I'm going to bring 4 that I can catch. But the thing is you still have to pay for shots for each of those cats before they'll spay them, so it's still isn't going to be cheap. Called my regular vet to see what it'd cost to get 4 of them spayed, and the total would be $825!!! That's with the required shots too. No wonder there are so many un-fixed animals out there. I have a male and female dog, got them both fixed as soon as I could. All of my horses are gelded. But these cats are making me crazy! |
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Expert
Posts: 1273
Location: South Dakota | docschic - 2015-06-26 1:22 PM I can send you some coyotes and fishers to take care of your kitty population.....we do not have alot of strays up here thanks to the fishers. They can do a number on cats in no time. We have 1 out door cat that gets to sleep in the porch when it's nasty out otherwise she's an outside cat all the time. Owls will take care of the kittens too...had that happen once.
I had to look up what a fisher was.....yikes, no thank you! |
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