Can Someone Get Rid Of These Cats For Me?
While it may seem preferable to remove the cats from your backyard, neighborhood, or workplace this will not solve the problem. For decades, animal control agencies and humane agencies alike practiced a “Trap and Kill” philosophy with feral cats. Feral cats were rounded up in traps and euthanized in an attempt to eradicate these homeless and wild animals that were breeding prolifically.
What was discovered, however, was that once a group of feral cats were removed from a given area using trap and kill methods, more feral cats appeared in that same area. The process of trapping and killing had to take place in the same area again…….and again, and again, and again. This phenomenon was coined “The Vacuum Effect” in 1983 by wildlife biologist Roger Tabor in his studies of London street cats.
Feral cat colonies develop in certain areas because those areas provide a food source and adequate living conditions for them to survive. Food sources can be dumpsters, trash cans, or a person leaving out food for the homeless cats. When cats are removed from an area but the environment remains the same, eventually other ferals from neighboring areas will move in to take advantage of the ideal living conditions and the cycle repeats itself.
By contrast, Trap, Neuter, Return programs successfully control populations in a compassionate and humane manner. With all the cats in the colony spayed/neutered, vaccinated, and cared for by a caretaker, the result is a stabilized colony of healthy cats which will decline over time as the cats die. The existing cats tend to be territorial and will usually keep intruding cats from entering the colony.