National Feral Cat Day 2014

National Feral Cat Day 2014.

Welcome to Sandpiper Cat Blog and Happy National Feral Cat Day 2014! At SCB, we have been celebrating National Feral Cat Day for four years now! We celebrate in order to raise awareness for feral (community) cats that live in our world.

This year, the National Feral Cat Day theme is TNR: From The Alley....To Main Street, brought to us by Alley Cat Allies. National Feral Cat Day launched in 2001, on the 10th anniversary of Alley Cat Allies. The goal of the day is to promote TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) programs.

Watch the video below to learn the difference between feral and stray cats.

Community cat facts: 

• Community cats have existed alongside people for 10,000 years.
• They are called community cats, feral cats or outdoor cats.
• Most community cats are not socialized to people, they are not adoptable.
• Community cats (as members of the domestic cat species (like pet cats) are protected under state anti-cruelty laws.
• Community cats should not be taken to pounds/shelters. 
• Community cats can live full, healthy lives outdoors - but are usually killed in shelters.
• Their kittens can be adopted into homes, but they must be socialized at an early age.

Alley Cat Allies is a wonderful organization, that was founded in 1990 and its headquarters are located Bethesda, Maryland. Alley Cat Allies is the only national organization dedicated to the protection of cats.

Please share our post today, or any day you come across it and help raise awareness about community cats.  Read our past posts from 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Information courtesy of Alley Cat Allies. Used with permission.

Response to New York Times Article "That Cuddly Kitty Is Deadlier Than You Think"

“For all the adorable images of cats that play the piano, flush the toilet, mew melodiously and find their way back home over hundreds of miles, scientists have identified a shocking new truth: cats are far deadlier than anyone realized.”

This quote is how the New York Times article “That Cuddly Kitty Is Deadlier Than You Think” begins.  I’m sorry, wait and stop right there. You’re telling me, that my cat is deadly? While shaking my head, I continue to read the article. 

My sweet Vickie. An indoor cat that has not killed a bird.

Surveys are saying that “domestic cats in the United States…kill a median of 2.4 billion birds and 12.3 billion mammals a year…most of them native mammals like shrews, chipmunks and voles.” This instantly makes me think of every Saturday morning cartoon I’ve seen, with the cliché of the cat chasing the bird or mouse (though the cat never seems to catch either). 

The author of the article continues to tell me, that more birds die at the mouths of cats than from car accidents and pesticides/poisons. I find this interesting because in my life, none of my cats have ever killed a bird. I have had ten cats, six are the current housecats. So there you have sixteen cats that have never killed a single bird. 

The article does talk about both indoor cats that spend time outside and the “unnamed strays and ferals that never leave” the outdoors. The last time I saw a dead bird was after it flew into the window of my neighbor’s sliding glass door. Wasn’t killed by a cat!

I understand that sure, there are cats that kill birds and mice – my cats have killed two or three mice. However, I don’t condone the cats’ natural instincts. Birds and mice carry a plethora of diseases that not only could the cat contract, but us humans as well. The last thing I want for my cat, is for it to be eating anything other than the food that I feed them. 

This article really enraged me, because it is catering to a stereotype that is not true of all cats. As much as Sylvester wanted to eat Tweety bird…he never did! The article soon launches in to the idea that scientists and environmentalists agree that cats should be kept indoors, and any owners who say otherwise are irresponsible. 

Tweety always got away from Sylvester in the end.

“Any outdoor [feral cat] colonies that remain should be enclosed,” said Dr. Fenwick of the bird conservatory.  I’m not going to launch into an argument about Dr. Fenwick’s controversial statement, but I will say that I completely disagree.

For more information, please view the New York Times article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/science/that-cuddly-kitty-of-yours-is-a-killer.html?_r=0.