by Sylvia Ann – Intro by Michael
(USA)
Every Slot Taken.
I respect all points of view. All points of view should be listened to and if we disagree we should state our case. I am sure that our fine family of cat lovers would agree that.
Sylvia Ann a regular and valued visitor and contributor has written an article in her own style that argues that trap, neuter and return programs are ultimately impractical. She says, "Euthanasia is horrible. But is it more so than condemning a cat to a hard-scrabble life and a slow death?" By euthanasia, she means killing because most of these cats are not suffering to the point where the term "euthanasia" is applicable. Or am I wrong? Euthanasia " refers to the practice of ending a life in a manner which relieves pain and suffering..." (Wikipedia). Many feral cats are suffering and they live short messy and unhappy lives it seems. I am not sure. This is itself is a debatable point - meaning are we euthanising feral cats or killing them.
There is, though, a counter argument to TNR in this very imperfect world and a good number of people believe in it, namely, as Sylvia Ann suggests, killing or euthanising them, humanely. I know that it does not work too eradicate the problem because the vacuum created by killing feral cats is filled by more feral cats. But as I understand it, the argument is that is contains or manages the "feral cat problem" (a problem that we created incidentally) in a practical and realistic manner.
And here is the real point: We are already killing feral and unwanted cats by the millions! It is done is an underhand way but shelters kill millions of cats every year. No Kill Animal Shelters.
Personally, I don't agree with this. Better and more widespread TNR with government backing would work but that is probably an impractical suggestion as it is highly unlikely that TNR will ever be done nationwide in an organised manner.
{Note: The photographer of the header photo, by rikkis_refuge (Flickr) says in the caption: Every Slot Is Taken in the 9th Life Retirement, Assisted Living And Psychiatric Center} He or she makes a lot of good points from first hand experience. Here is one:
I bet every one of you would be shocked to know how many facilities that advertise and bring in most of their income by claiming to be no kill, euthanize vast percentages of their animals, by putting them into the unadoptable category. See more of what they say at Rikki's Refuge an animal sanctuary in Orange, Virginia.
Your comments are welcome....
Here is Sylvia Ann's article.
SOPHIE'S CHOICE
Several years ago there was something on the Internet about PETA’s wholesale euthanization of animals (please see Elisa's article: PETA Believes Feral Cats Should be Killed (opens in a new window)). There was also a photo (though dimly recalled) of one of their marches. Some of the protestors looked a mite tacky: nude to the waist, Halloween face-paint, waving their arms and grinning like loonies. Yet PETA’s stance on animal rights, their veganism, their opposition to vivisection, etc. seem laudable.
It goes without saying that animals have as much right to live as we featherless bipeds. A housefly’s life is as dear to the fly as ours is to us. One of the best books of all time is Freddie the Fly – Our Kinship with All Life. Euthanasia is sickening. It’s murder unless the animal is dying.
It makes good sense to know one’s own limit: to know that four or five cats are the most one could reasonably care for. But a problem occurs when this tidy self-knowledge collides head-on with our inborn nature - our dyed-in-the-wool inability to turn away strays that come to our door, pumping the concrete with their small paws, gazing at us in mute supplication, begging for food - begging for mercy.
Unless we can wave a magic wand that prevents that sixth cat from coming our way, here’s where the Choice makes its Grand Entrance. Bottom line: we can’t have it both ways. It’s one or the other. Either we reconfigure our natures – an effort akin to changing the color of our eyes - or the sane and sensible limits that we have set for ourselves bite the dust.
Which will it be? There is no Walt Disney ‘Choice No. 3’ hiding up there in the cumulus clouds or behind that hedge. There are two options, and only one choice. Do we feed our own faces with three meals a day and snacks in between? Or do we whack those cats off the porch? We’re home free if we’re ‘whackers.’ And if we're not - the sinking begins.
If you’re cursed by compassion - condemned by compassion - what do you do? Do you shave your budget so you can make room for an extra cat? Shaving works when there’s only one cat.
But when there’s a dozen - and more than a dozen - you reach for a hatchet and start lopping off what you need to survive. For starters, your health insurance. Heat for your house. A healthful diet: you eat lentils & brown rice (which, come to think, are highly nutritious. Nutritious, but boring.) You give up the things you used to enjoy. You quit going to places you also enjoyed, for the small change of scene they afforded. You postpone home repairs, or try to do them yourself, if you can. You cut back on your gas if you have a car. You hack off small chunks - one chunk at a time - until, in the end, you’re steeped in fear. And the cats keep coming.
Euthanasia is horrible. But is it more so than condemning a cat to a hard-scrabble life and a slow death? Are either of these a happy choice? Some of the cats and dogs down here in this neck of the woods are living skeletons: their face pinched with hunger, their ribs protruding like the hull of a rotted ship.
There are people in these towns who are feeding 80 cats. Veterinarians are asked by their clients to help them find homes for the unwanted cats. But their pleas are in vain. There’s no room at the inn.
The feral cat problem down here is so gruesome, caregivers are frantic. To offer a poor analogy, if a sonogram showed a dozen embedded embryos in the uterine wall, what is a woman supposed to do? She’ll split wide open if she’s too loving to have them aborted, or if she fears that she'll be condemned as heartless, cruel, and terribly wrong not to give birth to her dear little babies. But none of this, in fact, telates to a lack of feeling. The central issue is physical impossibility.
These caretakers’ money is nearly gone from shelling out hundreds of dollars a month to feed the poor starvelings. ‘Well…why don’t they reach out for help? Surely someone in the community will come to their aid?’ That’s what they’ve done, and no one can help. We have TNR groups who work themselves into an early grave. How can they help when they’re overwhelmed? It isn’t that people are selfish and uncaring. The best of the best of them try, and keep trying. But the problem of ferals isn’t a trickle. It’s a thundering torrent.
It goes without saying that TNR is the one and only humane solution. Euthanasia is worse than bad. So is slow starvation. So is the financial collapse of caregivers, some of them as old as the hills. Where is the money to get TNR rolling? Maybe the Troops have an answer to this.
Banged out in haste and sloppily written. Headed out door to buy 400 cans of Friskies for ferals and FF for housecats.
Over and out.
Sylvia Ann
Note... the photograph is of well cared for cats in a refuge. I believe that the person who runs it would not agree with Sylvia Ann. They do euthanise cats however but under genuine conditions where the cat is suffering to the point where euthanasia is justified...Michael
