Emotional impact on TNR caregivers when their cats were shot by the authorities

The emotional impact on TNR caregivers when their cats were shot by the authorities is shocking. This is an interesting approach to discussing the ‘feral cat problem’. Most of the time the focus is on how to get rid of feral cats. An attitude which is predominant in Australia and New Zealand. And the preferred method in Australia is to kill them sometimes by shooting. But what about the kind humans when their cats are shot? This study answers that question. In general, in Australia TNR is illegal. It is allowed in New South Wales, the state where this atrocity to place.

Introduction

In Australia there are people who are concerned about the welfare of feral cats which may surprise some as it seems most want to kill them. They manage feral cat colonies as they do in America and other parts of the world. These are TNR programs. As you properly know, “TNR” stands for trap-neuter-release. These are decent people trying to help human society and the welfare of cats who should be living with humans but are not because of human carelessness.

Culling TNR cats and the impact on humans

And a recent study looks at the impact on these gentle people when lethal force is used against the feral cats in their care by culling them.

The cull took place at the Port of Newcastle in 2020. It is rather shocking to think that feral cats were being managed in the Port of Newcastle and then suddenly the local authority decided to kill them all, overriding and trampling all over the emotions and efforts of the feral cat caregivers.

What effect did this have on those kind people? The study found out and the results are, I think, devastating. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised because people involved in TNR have hearts and minds. They give their time and effort to help vulnerable creatures. They put body and soul into it. To suddenly shoot the cats in their care can only result in emotional devastation.

It’s unusual but this study interviewed these ladies (it is nearly always ladies involved in TNR management) and so we have some quotes which carry a very strong message.

Note – linked topic: Shelter works have the highest suicide rate of all workers in the US because of the unnecessary killing of shelter animals.

Immediate aftermath of the shooting

Here are some poignant and hard to read quotes. The study authors said: “Given that there was anecdotal evidence of trauma and distress experienced by caregivers, recruitment and interviews were conducted by a qualified counsellor to mitigate further distress and provide support if necessary. ”

“…the worst area. There was blood everywhere. All over the rocks, all over the pathway, like drag marks. So, once I’d sat with them, I’m going, ‘far out!’—something horrendous has happened here… I just started crying because the realization that out of the cats that were there, they probably only spotted about five. It was like, oh my God, what the hell has happened out here?”

“… two men came back in sort of like council suits, and they had some wheelie bins with them. They proceeded to scrub the blood away. They had cleaning products, and they were cleaning up the mess. We asked them what they were doing, and they laughed at us. That’s when we knew that this was something way bigger than we ever imagined.”

“We looked over onto the rocks… There was this trail of blood. I said, there’s a cat down there—there has to be a cat down there. She just climbed down and sure enough, she pulled out Lily who was the headline of the Breakwall. She’d been shot straight through the head. She’s blind.”

“… we were left with very many injured cats and also cats that had got away and passed away within the rocks. So even though we didn’t know who they were exactly, the smell was absolutely horrifying.”

“I kept calling out, Charlie, Charlie. Suddenly he pops up with his leg just hanging off him, coming up towards me, and I thought, oh my God. Thank God you’re alive. But his best friend, Max, had died, and here he was all alone, injured, terrified, not sure of what was going to happen next. It was just brutal. It was absolutely brutal.”

Long-term psychological impacts from the culling on humans

The study reports that there were long-term psychological impacts from the culling. The caregivers reported decreased levels of daily functioning and “several negative impacts” on their well-being following the culling. These negative impacts were felt approximate 12 months after the event for some individuals. They were unable to say goodbye and they did not know the fate of some of the cats.

“… when it happened and I knew I was obviously affected… I took a month-long service leave when it happened from my job, and that was to spend time out there trying to help the cats that were still out there, and also to deal with the emotional side of it, and deal with the rescue side of it.”

“… we’ve shed many a tear out there when you find a cat dead or a concern that some are missing. Because so many went missing…”

“… it’s just the pressure of everything. I mean I didn’t eat. I couldn’t eat for weeks. I still—I’m 38 kilograms or something. I’m that thin and it’s because when the stress of the cull happened, I literally couldn’t eat.”

“I still get emotional and it’s certainly moving on the 12-month mark. Thinking about that is really quite hard for myself and the other feeders, but I feel like I’ve—I don’t think I’ve fully dealt with it… People are okay if I get teary.”

“We had Scritch with a broken leg. We had Charlie who had been shot in the leg. We had Maggie who’d been grazed along the neck… To this day, it still impacts me.”

“… the thing that stays with us, the cats that they actually picked up and took away in a garbage bin, were they dead? Did they make sure that they were dead? We just would have liked to have had them scanned [for a microchip] so that we know who they actually took away—where did they take them? Not that it matters in one sense, but it does to us because we just wanted to know who they had.”

“… we want at least to say goodbye to them… We want their bodies. We want to bury them, or we want to know who’s dead or who’s injured amongst the rocks.”

Conclusion

It is impossible to come to any conclusion other than this was a brutal, unnecessary and barbaric approach to feral cat management by the local authority which not only ended the lives of feral cats but severely damaged the lives of the humans caring for them. The caregivers should sue the local authority for compensation.

Nathan Winograd quotes Carl Jung, the father of analytical psychology. He said that if you want to understand why someone is doing something, look at the consequences, and you can infer the motivation. If this is true, the feral cat shooters’ motivation was to harm cats and those who love them. They must be cat haters and they also hate people who love and care for cats.

It is an aspect of TNR which has not been spoken about that often before. Some more enlightened local authorities work with TNR practitioners through funding because they realise that these ladies do good work which benefits the citizens in their jurisdiction.

The cruder, ignorant attitude of some local authority councillors, resulting in a culling as described, does nothing but create negative experiences across the board. And it is ignorance which is the cause of this.

The study

The Impact of Lethal, Enforcement-Centred Cat Management on Human Wellbeing: Exploring Lived Experiences of Cat Carers Affected by Cat Culling at the Port of Newcastle by: Rebekah Scotney, Jacquie Rand, Vanessa Rohlf, Andrea Hayward and Pauleen Bennett. Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13020271