So in my area, we have an issue with feral cats. It's not uncommon to be woken up by a cat fight or loud meowing (probably cat mating calls?). Just got back from a walk with the dogs and noticed about 12 small kittens and a mom cat going into a broken board under someone's house. We probably see 3-4 colonies of kittens every few days. Anyone know what I can do about this? There's so many homeless cats/kittens and I can't imagine this amount of litters every year!! It breaks my heart to see these poor starving kittens wandering around without homes. (Btw our neighbors leave out cans of wet food and bags of kibble all over their property which attracts the cats as well as other scavengers). Should I call animal control? ASPCA? Try to trap and rehome?

Many communities have trap spay and release programs.  They will provide the live traps and bait, you trap, bring the cat  for spaying or neutering, pick up and release. You and neighbors agree to provide feed and some sort of shelter... either a barn or other outbuilding or small shelters that can be made from Tupperware tubs, insulation and straw or some such thing.  I've done my share of spay and release but getting Ami not only took care of the deer, woodchuck and rabbit problem but the feral cat problem as well.

If there is a spay and release program then that's the way to go. If your immediate area doesn't have one check other towns near to see if they have one. We don't have a program where I live but some of the shelters do super cheap spay days you can take them to and sometimes I will send a feral with my friends who live where there is a feral spay program. If you can catch the young kittens they can be tamed down and adopted as pets. The cat I have was a dump that lived on her own for a while. I caught her half starved and kept her in in my dog's kennel until she tamed enough to mess with.

Thank you for the help! I've been trying to find a spay/neuter program in the area, but cant seem to find anything. I reached out to a local cat rescue in my area to see if they can help/have advice. These cats are really quite fierce, I am not sure I would be able to trap them myself. They have attacked my dogs multiple times. They just sit there and growl and claw and do not move. The kittens are adorable though...

The local "rescues" (quote marks because many rescues seem to euthanize all ferals) will often have traps available for residents to borrow.  Your animal control (dog catcher, whatever they call it there) probably has one you can use.  It's to their benefit to have the breeding stock (mature cats and dogs) taken out of the population and there aren't enough of them to catch every stray (there aren't enough of US to catch every stray!)  

The downsides to this is that any stray you'd catch will probably be put down because, I think, most ferals cannot be "rehabilitated" and you may deprive kittens of their food source; the upside is that with momma out of the way, you might be able to catch, train and rehome the wild kits.

I really do hate the alternatives since there don't seem to be a lot of good ones for the mother cat. The benefit is that any rescued kittens will probably be neutered, which is a good thing, and have a chance at a much better life.

See that's what I was worried about! I don't think I could sentence an animal to death like that Can't they just spay/neuter them and then release them??

The kittens would 100% be adopted. I was thinking about taking a few for myself.... except they would become husky food for sure.

Sooo the rescue got back to me.

"There are cats/kittens around every house, apartment complex, college or university, military base, warehouse, strip mall, diner, etc etc etc. Please remember that two thirds of the cats in the world live outside. Cats are extremely well equipped to survive (and thrive) even when they do not have a home. So, even though it appears that the cats that you are seeing are homeless, they know how to take care of themselves in that environment. There are people who feed them every day so they are not likely to be hungry."

So I guess that's that then? They said that if I call the town they will kill the cats. I guess I will have to find some sort of trap of my own and take a few every now and then to the low cost spay/neuter thing.

Jenah wrote:

So I guess that's that then? They said that if I call the town they will kill the cats. I guess I will have to find some sort of trap of my own and take a few every now and then to the low cost spay/neuter thing.

I use a large havahart trap and bait it with tuna. If you talk to the vet ahead of time, they can give you the best advice how to bring the cat in - probably transfer in the trap, they can give a pole shot.

Maybe its time to organize a trap spay and neuter for your area? I don't know about you but for us, the main complaint was the cat pee smell. Otherwise, they were the best tool for keeping rodents and rabbits controlled...well, 2nd best. Ami cleared the property of everything except some of the voles.