Feral cats originate from former domestic cats that have been abandoned by their owners or lost in the outside world. They learn to survive with little human contact in the outdoors or in abandoned buildings, warehouses, residential areas or other such places. Unlike stray cats that are tame, feral cats are not accustomed to people and are typically fearful and too wild to handle.
Female feral cats can reproduce up to three times per year. Without human contact, the surviving kittens will become feral at an early age as well. Female cats reach reproductive maturity at around 5 months old and as a result, many areas in the United States have experienced a cat population explosion.
In general, feral cat colonies form in areas where food and shelter can be obtained. Dumpsters near restaurants, a field with plenty of rodents to dine upon, and caring neighbors who feed the animals all help a cat colony to grow.
If you are having trouble with feral cats or other nuisance wildlife in New Jersey or New York City, contact Stern Environmental Group to see how they can help you.
The primary thing we must emphasize is the millions of unwanted feral and roaming pets outdoors is a critical environmental problem, not an animal welfare issue.
There are tens of millions of the cats, perhaps as many as a hundred million, and most ecologists and biologists agree they murder as many as a billion of our birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and fish each year, many of them threatened or endangered.
Our precious fauna is rapidly vanishing from habitat loss, pollution of our air and water, and the unnatural predation of cats. The unwanted pets are being abandoned at exponential rates, due to the bad economy and the proliferation and perpetuation of cat colonies by their enablers.