The Hillsborough Animal Health Foundation (HAHF), which is supported by 40 animal hospitals throughout Hillsborough County say, on their website, that the well-known and well-respected Alley Cat Allies make fraudulent statements in support of trap-neuter-release (TNR) programs. That’s quite a strong statement to make, which is why I am reporting it. It is almost defamatory.
The biggest objection that HAHF have with TNR is that it allows feral cats to continue to spread disease to people. TNR creates or perpetuates a public health concern. We have heard this many times before.
I’d like to address that initially. Feral cats exist because of poor cat ownership. If they present a health hazard to people then TNR works to eliminate that hazard by gradually minimising the numbers of feral cats. On that basis TNR helps to remove health risks in the community from feral cats. So I don’t really follow their argument. There are also question marks on the disease spreading allegation.
What HAHF wants is a more complex version of TNR which includes a novel idea: a “feral cat containment plan”. At least HAHF want a humane solution to the “feral cat problem”.
They want to set up sanctuaries funded by the taxpayer in which colonies of feral cats can be managed. The sanctuaries would confine the cats thereby preventing them from attacking wildlife and transmitting disease to people.
There are other aspects to their complex program which includes ways to minimise owner surrenders, indoor cats only, better shelters, improving cat caretaking through training and obligatory registration etc.. There is more. The big difference is the containment – the HAHF ‘Containment’ Plan.
Back to the claim that Alley Cat Allies (ACA) is one of the TNR supporters who hold “misguided opposition viewpoints”.
ACA is the leading cat TNR organisation. HAHF say that ACA’s facts are wrong and worse:
“..the alleged facts are either extreme distortions of medical papers (at best) or outright fraudulent (at worse).”
HAHF says that the ACA website or fact sheet states that “there is simply no evidence to back up the position that cats spread disease”. And that “No Danger From Rabies” exists from feral cats. HAHF strongly contest these views and say that ACA are making up “facts”. The claim that they are false statements and call them fraudulent.
HAHF claims that veterinarians are aware of the following numbers:
- 455 People in Florida given Rabies Shots from Cat Attacks in 2010!
- 1 of every 4 Americans infected with Toxoplasmosis!
- 2.4 BILLION (avg) Birds Killed by Feral Cats Each Year!
- 455 People in Florida given Rabies Shots from Cat Attacks in 2010!
- 30,000 +/- Kids are Hospitalized Each Year from Cat Scratch Disease!
I’d like to comment on some of these points because they seem to be misjudged or downright fraudulent.
As for cat scratch disease I would have thought that 99% of cases were caused by mishandling of domestic cats not feral cats. That immediately undermines their claim that feral cats are to blame.
As for the rabies shots. Perhaps they were given as a precaution notwithstanding that the cat did not have rabies. Another misrepresentation.
As for toxoplasmosis, perhaps the cause was eating undercooked meats or the transference of cysts came from domestic cats in the yards of their owners. Do we know? Can we assume that feral cats are to blame?
As for the killing of wildlife, the figures are extrapolated estimates from small scale, localised studies. We don’t know the impact of feral cats on wildlife so it is misleading to make bold statement as if they were facts.
It seems that HAHF are highly hypocritical. They have an agenda and will do anything to pursue it. They are probably backed by ornithologists.
This is their page on the internet as to why TNR is wrong.
I have been told that HAHF have deliberately tried to undermine TNR.
Well said Kitty. They proudly state these “facts” as proof that TNR is a public health hazard but the facts are not clear, the sources are not clear and they may apply to cats other than feral cats.
The health statistics seems very misleading:
“455 People in Florida given Rabies Shots from Cat Attacks in 2010!”
– I’d love to see them provide evidence of this statistics, also to see that they are specifically from feral cats. Does the original article provides proof? Also, why did they choose 2010?
“1 of every 4 Americans infected with Toxoplasmosis!”
One can get toxoplasmosis by working in one’s garden…
“30,000 +/- Kids are Hospitalized Each Year from Cat Scratch Disease!”
Is it from feral cats or kids’ own pets?
Sandy, I had no idea that ABC was in league with HAHF except at the end of the article I guessed that there was a link between bird lovers and HAHF. Good research Sandy. Many thanks.
Good questions Marianna. I am going to have to think about it.
My quick research found this, from January 2014:
“Haters Gonna… Love?
Earlier this week the American Bird Conservancy launched a series of short public service announcements created in collaboration with the Hillsborough Animal Health Foundation, “calling on cat owners to care for their pets using ‘Cats Indoors’ approaches that are demonstrably better for cats, better for birds, and better for people.”
That same day, on the organization’s Facebook page, ABC declared, “We love cats! That’s why we want to keep them inside.”
Love?
This, remember, is the same organization that’s been opposed to TNR since 1997. Over the past 17 years, ABC has taken every opportunity to misrepresent rigorous science, as well as promote—and even produce—junk science on the subject.
Among HAHF’s more notable efforts to undermine TNR efforts was its delusional AWAKE! “proposal,” the provisions of which included prohibitions on any new colonies in Hillsborough County and an 8,000-foot buffer zone around “schools, human food sources (groceries, restaurants, etc.), daycare centers or hospitals… public parklands or environmentally sensitive areas.”
Cats kept at the county’s two sanctuaries were, under their “plan,” to be housed, 10–25 cats each, in 12’ x 8’ “garden sheds” for which “electricity would likely not be required.”
This partnership between ABC and HAHF should come as no surprise, then—two organizations that have demonstrated, time and time again, a say-and-do-anything approach to attacking TNR, as well as the people and organizations that support it.
And we’re expected to believe that they love cats?
If this is love, bring on the haters.”
More a question than a comment on this particular situation: Do others who do TNR worry about the problem of their cats needing to be revaccinated, especially against rabies? Hard to catch them, but I know some vets believe immunity lasts longer than acknowledged. Also do you try to catch & treat them for abscesses & other problems (e.g., skin) that you see? Or shall we accept that we’re simply releasing “hostages to fortune”?