True or False: No way a wildlife trapper is willing to risk their license for a cat.

This year has turned out to be even more dangerous than in the past for feral and domestic cats. I’m looking for answers and those with colony cats are looking for answers as well as advice on what can be done legally. Let me explain…

Most of us know the cat owner is ultimately to blame for allowing their cats to wander in places they shouldn’t. Many of the cats living on the kindness of others were abandoned, thrown out and aren’t spayed or neutered.

Wildlife trappers are often called in where they rid a property of a cat for a fee. The problem comes when the trapper doesn’t take the cats that were trapped to the local shelter. When that happens, animal protection laws come into play.

UK and USA law is similar in this regard and in the UK the following would apply technically:

“All cats – domestic and feral – are protected by the Animal Welfare Act of 2006 and it is an offense to trap or intentionally kill or harm them in any way. … Also, because the cat is considered property, the act of taking a cat and dropping it off somewhere is theft in the eyes of the law so do not do it.”

It’s also illegal for animal labs to trap cats for medical experiments/dissection. Anyone who is caring for a feral colony should keep an eye out for these trucks as it likely means a lab is operating outside the law.

There have been cases in the Carolina’s recently where feral cats have disappeared overnight in large numbers. These cats have a ‘caregiver’ and are considered the property of that caregiver. No one is certain whether the cats were trapped by a professional or whether money changed hands with someone who isn’t a professional to trap and ‘dispose’ of the cats.

I’m watching a few cases in both North Carolina and South Carolina that will most likely result in legal action being taken, should the caregivers/owners not find the missing cats.

When police were contacted about one of the cases, the caregiver was told: “no way a wildlife trapper is willing to risk their license for a cat.”

I’d like input on what has happened to the cats. Were they:

• Professionally trapped and disposed of by the trapper (meaning not involving animal control)
• An individual who shares the property owners hate of cats and was paid a fee to remove the cats (again, meaning not involving animal control)
• Someone is lying all the way around when questioned about the missing cats

I won’t give the location of the latest disappearance of a feral colony because there are cat hating trolls who would love to know where to go to destroy any remaining colony cats.

A related article can be found below

What are professional animal trapping companies doing with the cats they trap?

Have any of the feral caregivers had a similar case of a colony who goes missing where trapping is suspected? Please sound off in the comments and be sure to share this article with TNR advocates.