A group of animal lovers wants to establish cat colonies on St. George Island but biologists and some island residents say the island is no place for feral cats.
Helen Gore and Cathy Buell, cofounders of St. George Island Cat Allies together with June Crawford of
They are working to establish a trap, neuter and release program (TNR) to return cats to live outdoors. TNR is the method of feral cat control endorsed by Alley Cat Allies (ACA), a national organization to protect and stabilize feral cat populations.
“TNR involves humanely trapping stray and feral cats and having them vaccinated and spayed/neutered before returning them to their outdoor home,” reads the ACA website. “It is the only effective method of stabilizing outdoor cat colonies. Because of TNR, the birth of new kittens in the colony slows down and eventually ends when all the cats are spayed or neutered. In addition, socialized cats and kittens are spayed/neutered and then often put up for adoption, causing an immediate reduction in the population size.”
Susan Gillum, a retired research ecologist who spends half the year in the St. George Island Plantation, said a TNR program will interfere with the fragile ecosystem of the barrier island.
Gillum, who worked for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and is now a private environmental consultant, said maintaining feral cat colonies on the island is a bad idea from both environmental and public health perspectives. She said cats are carriers of human diseases including rabies and toxoplasmosis.
Veterinarian Hobson Fulmer, of the Apalachicola Bay Animal Clinic, said rabies in cats and dogs is virtually unheard of in
Toxoplasmosis may be another story.
Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic disease caused by a protozoan, a single-celled animal that infects most warm-blooded animals, including humans, and most often infects cats.
During the first few weeks after exposure, the infection typically causes a mild, flu-like illness or no illness. However, people with weakened immune systems, including pregnant women, may become seriously ill, and it can occasionally be fatal
Toxoplasmosis can be spread to humans by contact with cat feces.
Gillum said feral cats at the beach are a special concern because they bury their feces in the sand where they may be unknowingly contacted by beachgoers including pregnant women and small children.
She also said that predation by domestic cats is a huge threat to both birds and sea turtles. Gillum told the following story of her own experience with feral cats, on Easter Sunday morning, after services, when she and her husband rode bicycles from the
“There were thousands of migratory cliff and barn swallows arriving from their migration across the Gulf. Hundreds were resting on the roadway. They are completely exhausted when they arrive and look for a warm and sunny place to land,” she said. “The pattern is that after they migrate, they rest. Once they get up some strength, they hop into the bushes and begin to eat insects.
“Some of them were being run over by cars but, more than that, we saw many attacked by feral cats running out of the undergrowth, grabbing them and running away,” said Gillum.
Gillum said TNR has been shown by veterinarians, ecologists and wildlife biologists to worsen the problem of predation by feral cats. She said the cats need to be trapped and removed, “ideally for adoption.”
‘Not viable on barrier islands’
Marvin Friel, a coastal bird specialist for the Florida Division of Recreation and Parks, monitors bird populations in Dr. Julian Bruce St. George Island State Park, where coyotes are the most common predator on ground nesting birds and turtle eggs. He said feral cat predation is not currently a problem in the park. Based on tracks, he believes there is only one feral cat living there, but is concerned cat populations near the park could rapidly increase.
“We would like, if anything, to see strategic placement of these colonies,” Friel said.”
Raya Pruner, a district biologist for the Florida Division of Recreation and Parks, said feral cats are a serious problem in some other parks.
“Ground nesting birds are our biggest concern,” she said. “There is a feral cat colony adjacent to a nesting habitat in
There are fewer than 250 nesting pairs of snowy plover remaining in
Pruner said she has documented a decline in nesting in the plover colony and chick survival since the cat colony was established.
“On these barrier islands it’s a bad idea where there is the potential for establishment of nesting colonies of shorebirds,” she said. “In my opinion, (TNR) is not viable on barrier islands. Feral cats will decimate migratory birds. Even well-fed domestic cats will hunt birds.”
Julie Wraithmell, Audubon
Other critics of TNR feel it is inhumane to the cats.
In a letter to the Florida Legislature’s Committee on Agriculture, Grant Sizemore of the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) wrote that, “free-roaming cats are in constant danger of being hit by cars, contracting diseases and parasites, or being attacked by other animals or people. This is why feral cats have about one-third to one-fifth of the life span of indoor, owned cats and may be why the National Association of Public Health Veterinarians, The Wildlife Society, and the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have joined ABC in opposing TNR programs.”
Fulmer, who has practiced veterinary medicine in the county for more than 30 years, expressed support for local TNR programs. “I will participate because the only alternative to TNR is trapping and euthanasia and that is not acceptable to the caregivers,” he said. “I’ve done TNR for many years and worked with the humane society. Until they come up with a better solution, this is the best we can do.
“In a perfect world, everybody would spay and neuter their cats, but we don’t live in a perfect world,” Fulmer said. “In my personal opinion, people shouldn’t feed feral cats if they aren’t going to have them neutered because that leads to larger and more frequent litters of kittens.”