I have a wildlife zoo-Chapter 754 - 753 Stray Cat

It’s not just the impact on birds and other animals, but also the transmission of diseases like toxoplasmosis and rabies, posing a threat to public health and safety.”

Some netizens who liked cats and even fed them felt somewhat ashamed after hearing Fang Ye’s explanation.

When they fed them in the past, they didn’t understand these issues and just thought they were being kind-hearted.

They realized that feeding indiscriminately was not a good thing and was akin to releasing animals irresponsibly.

The netizens couldn’t help but ask, “What should we do then?”

Fang Ye said, “First of all, at the root, we must prevent cats from becoming stray cats.

Owning pets involves spending money and effort, but many people think only of the joy pets bring before getting one and not the trouble they cause. When they no longer want to care for the pet, they abandon it, which is very irresponsible.

For example, in universities, if students want to keep pets but the school doesn’t allow it, they just let them roam outside and don’t take them when they graduate, leading to an increasing number of stray cats on campus.

Some allow their cats to roam freely, or the cats slip out of the window on their own and get lost. If you keep cats, don’t let them roam free, remember to secure your windows, you can effectively prevent such incidents. Cats kept at home are also healthy and have a long lifespan, which is a fact; there’s no need to let them go outside to play where they could potentially harm small birds.”

As for stray cats, control yourself and don’t feed them.

The living standards of stray cats certainly can’t compare to those of house cats, they might get hit by cars, be stoned by people, endure hunger by rummaging through trash, fight other strays for territory, and freeze into ice sticks during winter. Your feeding only temporarily improves their survival, but once they reproduce, the city ends up with a group of pitiful little stray cats that have to endure cold and rummage through trash.”

People say that stray cats are pitiful and those who abandon them despicable, yet at the same time, they feed them, thus becoming the very people they despise.

Another solution is sterilization!

Some people are strongly opposed to sterilizing cats, feeling that sterilization deprives them of a part of their life experience, stripping them of their right to breed, and leaving them unhappy.

Actually, this idea is entirely from the human perspective.

After sterilization, cats won’t have to endure the torment of heat and mating, leading to healthier bodies—what’s not to like about that?

If you insist that “if I’m not a cat, how do I know whether cats enjoy mating?” or you think that cats should at least mate once, have offspring, and then be sterilized for a fulfilled life—that idea is also based on the human point of view. Cats don’t have the concept of “I want to have a baby.” Their reproduction is simply driven by genetic instinct.

Let’s calculate how many descendants a cat could have if allowed to breed without restrictions.

A female cat can have up to 12 kittens in one litter, at least 2, typically between 3 to 6, and a healthy cat can give birth twice a year.

A pair of unsterilized cats, under ideal conditions, can produce up to 2 million cats in 8 years.

You want to preserve their right to breed, but what about their children’s right and their children’s children’s rights? Are you capable of taking care of all these offspring? If not, would you abandon them or give them away? Not everyone can take good care of a cat, and giving them away casually or if someone else abandons them after a while, doesn’t that become a source of stray cats?

Fang Ye paused for a moment and continued, “Trap, Neuter, Return, commonly known as TNR, is a relatively humane method to reduce the number of stray cats.

Volunteers capture the cats safely, then qualified veterinarians perform the sterilization and immunization. After surgery, the cats are returned to their original habitat with a notch cut into their ear for identification, preventing them from undergoing surgery a second time. Particularly friendly and human-social cats can be helped to find adoptive homes.

If you’re thinking about getting a cat, I recommend adoption over buying.

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Many people praise TNR, but it’s not a cure-all. To be effective, it requires cutting off the source of stray cats, achieving a sterilization rate of 71% to 94%, and managing centralized feeding—this demands strict adherence. The most crucial point still is not to feed them randomly or abandon them.

In fact, having three to five sterilized stray cats in a community isn’t a problem. You can pet them when free, which can enhance the happiness of the residents, cultivate kindness in children, and can even be considered a way to connect with nature.

Engaging in protective work often starts with such simple acts of kindness.

However, hundreds of thousands of stray cats in a city far exceed the carrying capacity of the ecosystem.

As for culling, the problem with stray cats isn’t just an ecological issue, but also a social one.

Simple and brutal culling, although it can effectively reduce the number of stray cats, often provokes strong opposition and can be counterproductive.

Culling is only used when the ecological environment is seriously threatened, such as protecting endangered wildlife or controlling severe infectious diseases.

In fact, euthanasia is also a good method, but again, acceptance is the issue, and that requires us to continually educate the public.”