Any cat lovers here?

[pickwick]

Cats 1st needs help with the growing feral cat problem right here in the Lakes Region. Please email them and ask how you can help. After seeing this article in The Citizen, they need us who live in the Lakes Region to lend our hands, donate food, etc. If you know of any resources that can help, please email them as they are willing to help this situation.

Original article: http://www.citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll...9937/0/CITIZEN

Feral cat problem growing

Feral cats have been a problem all over the country for many years, including here in the Lakes Region, and without any designated feral cat shelter or organization in the area, reports of wild cats reproducing are rising at an alarming rate.

Betsy Coes, president of Cats1st, a nonprofit, New Hampshire licensed shelter and rescue organization for feral and abandoned cats, said she has received several phone calls about out-of-control feral feline populations especially in the Gilford and Alexandria areas.

"I've answered close to five calls regarding large colonies in poor condition at a farm in Alexandria, a mobile home park in Gilford and a campground," said Coes whose shelter is located in Newfields in the state's Seacoast area.

She said in Gilford one elderly man is feeding over 30 stray and abandoned cats and many of them are sick and dying. The man, she said, cannot afford to feed them anything other than boiled spaghetti.

Another person in Alexandria, who wishes to remain unidentified Coes said, reported feeding well over 100 cats that are reproducing.

"These are not healthy cats," said Coes. "The situation has been going on for a long time and there is no help."

Coes said that Cats1st has offered to travel from Newfields with local cooperation and support, but being about an hour away from the Lakes Region makes that difficult. She said that her organization wants to help the public but lack of resources, transportation, veterinary care and volunteers "hamper the effort."

After trapping cats, Coes said her organization tries its best to spay and neuter them and bring them to the shelter for medication and vaccinations. She said that every feral cat trapped will have a tip of their ear removed, leaving a small mark as a way of keeping track of which cats have been spayed or neutered and vaccinated.

"We do hold them for 48 hours," she said. "I do not release them right away." She added that the cats are only released back into the area where they were trapped if people living there have signed a written agreement to continue to care for them.

Coes explained that trapping feral cats can be fairly difficult. She said the trap has a small raised screen with food placed on the other side. The cat steps onto the screen and a door closes vertically behind it. Cats1st does not trap overnight and when preparing a trap, people are told to not to feed the cats for a 24-hour period.

"For the most part, it happens fast," she said, adding that cats are habitual creatures and are likely to go to the same spot every day where they are fed at a certain time.

"The traps are safe and there's no way the animals can get hurt or people can get bit."

While some people may be afraid of feral cats, Coes said that most are scared of people and will rarely attack.

"People trap cats and don't know what to do. Some of the cats can be nasty when trapped."

According to Mary Di Maria, executive director of the New Hampshire Humane Society in Laconia, the shelter tries its best to help feral cats and tries to release them back to the "feeding community."

"We take them in if they are kittens," she said. "They come in and they can be sick and it isn't this healthy, cute little kitten."

Tammy O'Neil, who works with the felines at the at the Humane Society, said that if feral cats are healthy, they are sometimes placed as "barn cats."

"That's really common around here," she said.

O'Neil and Di Maria explained that feral cats are only destroyed if there is a medical reason or if the cat is unable to be handled.

"Most feral cats are scared, and they usually won't attack humans," said O'Neil. "We only release them back to where they were taken from with permission from the person who brought them in."

Coes said that cats can adapt nicely in the New Hampshire climate, especially once they have become spayed or neutered and have some shelter and food.

"Even if they are somewhat friendly, people are not adopting," she said, adding that even when the adult cats are up-to-date on care, it is hard to find a home for them.

With limited space at her shelter, Coes said she doesn't have room for many cats and hopes to raise awareness of just how bad the situation has become.

"I can't believe that the Lake Region doesn't have any organization like Cats1st that deals with feral or abandoned cats."

While her organization lacks volunteers, Coes said that there are "wonderful people on board and that some people care enough to call about the cats."

She said that although it cannot be proven, she has heard reports about colonies of feral cats being poisoned.

"How can a cat be at a feeding station one moment and then found dead the next?" She asked. "I don't know, and it's for no apparent reason."

Laconia Police Department Chief Michael Moyer said he knows of no large colonies of feral cats in the immediate Laconia area and at this time there is no designated animal control officer.

"We plan on dealing with that after the summer," he said, explaining that due to budget cuts, the animal patrol officer position had hours cut.

O'Neil and Di Maria said the public can do their part to reduce reproduction of feral cats.

"We want to make people aware of it," said Di Maria. "There are hundreds of feral cats and they can carry disease."

She said that the cats suffer from many illnesses including flea infestation, anemia and upper-respiratory problems.

"The community can help to start taking responsibility and neuter and spay their animals," O'Neil said.

While some feral cats are past the point of becoming domesticated, O'Neil said some would get along with domesticated cats.

"Feral cats usually love other cats."