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Feral Future Still Unsure

September 10, 2008, 4:34PM MT

By michael rinker

Best Friends representatives met with government officials about a plan to remove cats from a Navy-owned island near California.

Best Friends representatives met with government officials about a plan to remove cats from a Navy-owned island near California.

Written by Best Friends staff

Best Friends representatives were among a small group of animal welfare advocates who toured San Nicolas, a Navy-owned island off the California coast that the federal government wants cleared of feral cats.

An estimated 100 to 200 cats – the number is unknown because they reportedly live in various parts of the island but are rarely seen – are being blamed for the shrinking population of threatened and endangered species, including the night lizard, brown pelican and western snowy plover, as well as a potential threat to other sea birds.

San Nicolas, which is about nine miles long and 3.6 miles wide, provides missile and aircraft launch facilities and radar tracking.

At the invitation of the Navy, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and other government agencies, Gregory Castle and Shelly Kotter, director of Best Friends’ feral cat programs, boarded a Navy plane early Monday morning for the island, which is about 75 miles southwest of Los Angeles.

The delegation included Humane Society of the United States representatives who also have expertise in trapping feral cats and the impact cats have on wildlife.

The trip was a fact-finding mission for the two organizations, and “a step in a continuing dialog which could result in a much better fate for the cats,” said Castle, a Best Friends co-founder.

For years, the feds have targeted ferals on San Nicolas, where cats were first introduced by Navy personnel in the 1800s, according a government report. At a public hearing earlier this summer, the project drew an outcry from cat lovers and others, including Best Friends, which advocated for alternatives to simply killing the cats once they had been trapped.

As a result, the Navy invited us to the group – which numbered about 10, including government officials – to check out the island and talk in general about possible solutions.

Castle described the island as “a remarkably inhospitable environment for cats.”

With a desert-like landscape, San Nicolas is very dry, almost perpetually windy, with no vegetation other than some scrubby-looking brush and grasses, which means no trees. Large areas are rugged sandstone cliffs and canyons difficult even to hike through.

For much of the year, the island’s beaches play host to a large number of sea lions and seals, the successful result of marine mammal preservation projects.

During the tour, conversation turned to the project and how Best Friends and HSUS might be able to play a part in helping with the problem. Best Friends, of course, favors a Trap-Neuter-Return-Maintenance program, and opposes relocating the ferals to a “sanctuary” situation.

“The Navy's criterion of success is complete elimination of all cats,” Castle said. “Whether this is feasible is highly questionable in such a challenging environment. And then there is the problem of humane solutions for providing them with an alternative place to live on the mainland.”

Before moving forward, it would be beneficial to gather more scientific survey information on the cats’ locations, numbers and habits, he added.

“No easy solutions,” Castle said, “but Best Friends will continue to discuss possibilities with the government officials involved, trying to find a course which preserves the lives of cats, birds, lizards and everything which walks, flies and breathes on the island.”

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

1. Join the Feral Cat Campaign on the Best Friends Network. Get breaking news and find out ways you can get involved.

2. Attend the No More Homeless Pets Conference in Las Vegas this October 24-26. “Mainstreaming Feral Cats” feral cats will be one of the many informational workshops included during the three day event.

For more information:
• Best Friends Responds to Proposal to Eradicate Ferals
• U.S. Fish & Wildlife Plan to Eradicate Feral Colony on San Nicolas Island in Channel Islands
• Feral Cat Resources

Posted by Michael Rinker, Best Friends staff
Photo provided by Shelly Kotter, Best Friends staff

Comments

Posted September 11, 2008, 3:48PM by yvette

Hopefully they don't just eradicate the ferals under the "radar".

Posted September 17, 2008, 10:54AM by carafri

I applaud the Navy's effort to find a solution that is fair to both the feral cats and the endangered wildlife on the island.

Posted September 12, 2008, 3:13AM by QMD333

Myth: Feral Cats are to blame for the decimation of wildlife species

Fact: The HUMAN animal is the one to blame for the decimation of wildlife species. Because HUMANS hunt, because HUMANS pollute, Because HUMANS are guilty of encroachment.

If the Navy wants to see the true cause of wildlife decimation, they need only to look in the mirror.

Killing is something that the ignorant, arrogant, simple and narrow minded among us take part in.

Creative, compassionate, life revering humans do not subscribe to the "kill" solution.

We will find out if the Navy is creative, compassionate and life revering. I believe that they are. Only their actions will give us the answer.

Bottom Line: Those cats deserve to be saved. Their lives matter as much as the rest of ours do.

At the very least, the Navy should allow the cats to be humanely trapped and taken to a place here in America, where they can live their lives in peace.

Find 20 barns. Give each barn around 10 cats, careful not to split up families, and the problem is taken care of.

There is always another option.

The creative, compassionate and life revering seek, and they inevitably find.

Please, let the cats live. They are us. We are them.

A life is a life. A soul is a soul.

"The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different."
Hippocrates (ca. 460-377

"All beings tremble before violence. All fear death. All love life. See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do?" - Buddha

Posted September 13, 2008, 9:17AM by squeakie42

Since US Navy personnel created the problem originally by inhumane abandonment of the animals, the USN needs to take more active responsibility.

Posted September 13, 2008, 3:11AM by TNRdoesNOTwork

My hope is that homes can be found.

Other views, including US Navy Policies:

http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/policy/cats/tnr.html

If all life is to be respected, we also need to think of the potential native wild lives lost at barns through the placement of cats by humans:

http://www.tnrrealitycheck.com/barn_cats.asp

Posted September 13, 2008, 1:40PM by skidoo23

These sound like some cool cats to me - I think it is time for a new calendar - furious felines of the USN! Boo-ya! Where is that Troy S. when you need him!