I once was the ‘field services’ guy for a private shelter near Seattle. The staff was a combination of rabid animal rights people, clueless little old ladies in tennis shoes and people who were thrust into that job because they had no other skills. I was given the task of trapping out two feral cats at Ivar’s Salmon House in the U district in Seattle. It took about five weeks. First, the cooks threw out salmon for the cats. Second, I could only get there about twice a week. Third, I only got one of them. The pregnant female got away. A total waste of time. However, I happened to know of a partial solution and have attempted many times over the years to get it implemented – including telling about 500 directors and shelter managers when I was the main speaker at a major humane conference. So far, no takers.

In the 1980’s, Carnation created a soft cat food for cattery “Queens” to prevent them from automatically going into heat. It included a drug called “Ovaban” – now abandoned because it caused cancer. So, get a company to resurrect Ovaban and put it in dry cat food along with functional vaccines. Sell it though veterinarians or just give it away. Then anyone who wishes to control a feral cat population can feed them until they get so fat they can’t move – and that will be the end of that cat colony through attrition.

Why is this a better solution than current models?
1) It doesn’t require that you catch the cats, a time consuming and often dysfunctional strategy. The cats come to you.
2) There is no killing involved.
3) You can literally give this stuff to ‘cat ladies’ who foster feral cat colonies and they will help you rather than hinder your efforts.
4) It is fantastically cheaper than catching and neutering feral cats.

The first objections that are normally raised have to do with owned cats. Sorry, that isn’t a problem. While there are no laws that require your cat to be on your property, whatever happens off your property is out of your control. That would include cars, dogs, coyotes, other cats and various diseases and poisoning. If you don’t want your cat to eat cat food with Ovaban, keep it on your property.

“Cat Ladies” have to have some pitiful thing to care for and some of them are going to commit suicide if you remove the object of their obsession. I suggest a portion of the cost go to their internment in psychiatric wards so they won’t hurt themselves.

Local wildlife may eat the food and become sterile. So what? They are currently being eaten and thereby rendered sterile but digestible.

This program would take about $50,000 to test. I even had two test sites lined up. The island of Bermuda where feral cats trash local lizard and rodent populations and Vernal, Utah. Both places would allow for a very easy to track count of local populations before and after.

The major humane organizations in this country rake in about a half-billion each year. They don’t do things like this. I find that odd but oh-so-predictable. People do things based on priorities. That explains it perfectly.