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Where We Stand on Feline PredationBack to Cat Facts
A Message from San Francisco SPCA President Ed Sayres
The Golden Gate Audubon Society's "Save the Quail Campaign" has
taken aim at feral cats with a call to remove cats from San Francisco parks
and place them in homes or sanctuaries.
There are several flaws in the Audubon Society's approach. First, there is no
reliable basis for Audubon's claim that San Francisco's parks are inundated with
feral cats. There have been no scientific studies of the city's feral population.
However, anecdotal evidence suggests that feral colonies are actually declining
in size, thanks to the San Francisco SPCA's trap-neuter-return program.
An informal survey of feral cat caregivers conducted by the San Francisco SPCA
found that every caregiver who implemented a trap-neuter-return program as their
colony stabilize or decrease in number. In Golden Gate Park, one colony had been
reduced from 85 cats to two.
More importantly, as the national leader in humane feral cat management, we know
that adoption and sanctuary are not the answer. Most feral cats can't be placed
in homes, and sanctuaries don't permanently reduce the feral population.
The answer is trap-neuter-return. It is widely recognized as the most humane
and effective strategy for reducing feral cat populations. And it's the preferred
method of colony management. In 1996, an American Humane Association conference
on feral cats documented that trap-neuter-return was the prevailing choice for
humane management.
The San Francisco SPCA's feral cat program is recognized as a national model. "9Lives," our
nine-part video series on humane feral cat management, was produced and distributed
with the support of the Kenneth A. Scott Charitable Trust, PETsMART Charities,
the Salzman-Medica Fund and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. Since it was introduced
last year, the "9Lives" series has been requested by more than 300
animal welfare agencies in 47 states.
Finally, the notion that feral cats are to blame for a decline in the local quail
population is debatable. Indeed, several studies have concluded that habitat
loss and pollution are the key factors behind a reduction in the number of quai
in San Francisco parks.
San Francisco has repeatedly rejected attempts to stigmatize feral cats in the
name of wildlife preservation. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors' Commission
on Animal Control and Welfare put a stop to a 1993 plan to round up and kill
feral cats in Golden Gate Park after extensive research and public testimony
demonstrated a clear lack of evidence that cats were impacting birds. In 1997,
the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to remove language targeting feral
cats as a threat to biodiversity from the city's Sustainability Plan. In 2000,
a resolution naming the California Quail as San Francisco's official bird was
amended to protect feral cats.
We certainly applaud efforts to protect animals, whether wild or domestic, including
quail. But it's important to realize that the connection between feral cats and
quail population decline is inconclusive, and that San Francisco already has
the nation's leading program for effective feral cat management.
Reprinted with kind permission from the San Francisco SPCA.