Stalking big cats may be considered sport in Africa, but in Texas it could put you behind bars. Bird lover James Stevenson, founder of the Galveston Ornithological Society, faced two years in jail and a $10,000 fine for taking aim at feral cats. A retired teacher, Stevenson operates a bed and breakfast that caters to the more than 500,000 birders who come to the Gulf Coast island to enjoy hundreds of bird species. The problem is that feral cats come to the island for the same reason — only their idea of enjoyment includes a mouthful of feathers. When Stevenson decided to take the law into his own hands, he touched off a nationwide debate: birders vs cat lovers. In Texas, the result was a hung jury, but the debate — and the problem — rages on.

Cats are cute and playful — I have four and I keep them indoors where they can’t be a nuisance to my neighbors. I also have a bird feeder in my backyard. The cats and I enjoy watching the birds come to the feeder, though I’m sure for different reasons. Unfortunately, we also have a fair number of feral cats in our neighborhood and they, too, like to watch my feeder. About once or twice a year I find a pile of feathers in the yard that reminds me of the law of nature.

The problem is that feral cats aren’t part of the natural ecosystem. Feral cats have become a serious problem in bird sanctuaries, including those in New Jersey. In a city neighborhood like mine, they can be a downright nuisance: spraying and marking porches and front doors, turning flower beds into litter boxes, leaving fleas on porch swing cushions, and carrying diseases that can be passed to household pets. While I don’t think adding cats to the hunting calendar is the answer, it’s time for communities to take action.

In American households, there are a total of 60 million pet cats. Unfortunately, while these kitties are fed, petted, loved, and sheltered on rainy days, there are an estimated 100 million feral cats roaming about the country. Feral cats differ from stray cats; feral cats are cats that are born and live in the wild, while stray cats are domesticated cats that once had a home and may have been lost, abandoned, or otherwise separated.

Feral cats are not pleasant creatures. They are ferocious and extremely defensive, which they need to be, in order to survive in the wild. They are not friendly, and will usually attack anyone or anything by which they feel threatened. If you have a problem with feral cats hanging in or around your home, it is recommended that you not try to capture them, yourself. They can be riddled with many different types of diseases, both fatal and nonfatal, such as rabies, ringworm, feline leukemia, cat scratch fever, and more. Hire a wildlife removal professional to take care of the problem, instead. Home remedies, such as rags soaked in ammonia, moth balls, and ultrasonic pest repellent gadgets rarely work for the prevention of stray and feral cats. The only real way to rid your home of these vicious felines is to find them and have them manually removed by an experienced professional.

You can, at least, take a measure to prevent feral and stray cats from coming to your door by NOT FEEDING THEM. Many people feel sorry for homeless kitties and feel obligated to help them out. While this is nice, in principle, in practice, it will only bring your satisfied beggar right back… and he’ll probably bring his friends!

To help decrease the growing number of homeless and feral cats living in our country, please, make sure that you have your cats spayed or neutered. The more feral cats there are in the wild, the more you and your house cats are put at risk.

Cats are cute and make great pets, but when they are wild and left to breed, they will create a problem for a community. The problem starts with cats that may have been pets initially but have been abandoned, cats that have not been spayed or neutered by an uncaring owner and then left to run free, or cats that have been raised in the wild proliferated and not controlled by the local animal control agency. Regardless of how they have gotten there, when a wild cat population is established your peace and quiet is shattered.

Feral or wild cats are just that wild animals. They will fight and scream at night, they will moan and meow, they will spray their territory with their strong smelling urine. Heaven forbid if your baby stroller, car, or kids toys are in their way, they will soil it as they mark their territory to keep other cats at bay. At anytime of the evening, fighting cats will disturb your sleep. If you have a large population, then you have more Tom cats vying for the female cat’s attention and so you’ll have more middle of the night spats.

Feral cats will also carry rabies and will breed prolifically. Your own pets may be driven to distraction by feral cats camping out in your yard under the windows, close enough to see, yet far enough away to cause your dog to bark itself hoarse or your cat to start spraying your furniture inside to mark its own territory. What a mess! There is a solution. We will catch feral cats and rid you of your problem. We use humane trapping methods and work hard to help you regain your peace and quiet.

Sometimes your local animal control officers are stretched so thin that unless the cat is rabid, they will simply not take the proactive action that you desire to solve your problem. Think of us as a resource to provide the assistance that you need when you have exhausted your local government’s resources.

The little darlin’ is pregnant again! Not much bigger than a kitten herself, she seems to be “in a family way” two or three times a year. She and her broods take refuge under the porch of the rental house across the street. From my front windows I can see her slip furtively through the crack between the concrete steps and the warped wood siding to tend to her kittens. As the kittens get a little older, it’s fun to watch them tumble around on the grass, running to hide under my neighbor’s car when anyone approaches. The lady next door — in our neighborhood we call her “the cat lady” — feeds her and her growing number of offspring as well as at least eight or 10 other “regulars” all year. In her backyard she keeps a huge dish of kibble and another of water filled year-round. Her heart is in the right place, but her humanitarian actions have created a serious problem in our neighborhood.

The cats that now populate our street regularly pee on our front doors and porches to mark their territory. The paint is peeling off my neighbor’s newly painted siding, from the height of two feet down. They soak the cushions of our porch furniture with urine. They defecate and pee in our gardens, repulsing unwary gardeners. They stalk our bird feeders and hide in our garages, swiping and hissing when we try to shoo them away. I don’t open my kitchen window anymore because the odor of cat urine is so strong. The bushes under my kitchen window seem to have become a public urinal for the neighborhood colony. Their shrieks and cries pierce the night. And sometimes I find one torn, bloody and dying in the street, not fast enough to dodge the cars that pound up our hill despite the speed bumps.

I love cats. I have adopted four of my own. But feral cats are a menace to our neighborhood. Feral cats are non-domesticated cats that are born and live in the wild. Unlike domesticated strays, they have never had a home and are considered wild animals. Self-sufficient hunters, feral cats often live in colonies of 10 or more, adapting efficiently to the “wilds” of our neighborhoods. Colonies can seriously deplete natural wildlife populations, feeding on songbirds, rabbits, chipmunks, rodents and other small animals. They pose a serious threat to domesticated pets who encroach into their territory.

Most seriously, feral cats can transmit to humans and domestic pets diseases such as rabies, the plague, ringworm, toxoplasmosis, mumps, cat scratch fever, feline leukemia and feline distemper. You don’t have to come into contact with an infected cat to catch some of these diseases. If your child mistakes cat feces for a lump of sand while playing in his sandbox, he is at risk. If you unwittingly expose yourself to cat feces while digging in your garden, you risk contracting or spreading disease to your family and pets.

The removal and control of feral cats is a job for professionals. Wily and fierce, they will protect themselves, their broods and their territory with tooth and claw. You put yourself at serious risk if you try to trap them yourself. If you have a feral cat problem, call the pest control and pest management experts at Stern Environmental Group. Our skilled and experienced professionals can solve the problem without risk to your family’s health and welfare. Click the post title to find out more about our wildlife control services. Visit our website for information about our full scope of pest control and pest management services. You’ll sleep well tonight when you get “Stern” with your pests.