Feral Cats

A wild cat that lives outdoors. Most feral cats cannot be socialized if they had no human contact within the first 8-10 weeks of life.

Yes and no; it's a fine line. If we have the resources to relocate feral cats into a barn home based on certain circumstances and availability of barn homes, then we will make our best efforts to do so. 

However, it can be bad to remove feral cats from their original environments for two reasons:

1. Feral cats live in colonies, usually of 8 to 10 cats. When you remove cats from a colony, it creates a vacuum effect and the remaining cats in the colony reproduce at an accelerated rate to make up for the missing members. This is why euthanizing feral cats, which animal shelters have done for year, does not succeed in reducing the populations.
2. Feral cats are very attuned to their environment and usually, if moved, will try to run away and return to that original environment. Feral cats are not stray cats. Stray cats can usually be socialized and adopted into new homes. The main difference between a feral cat and house cat is that feral cats have never been properly introduced to humans, so they fear human touch and will flee even from those trying to help them. Because of this fear, it is not easy to socialize feral cats and can make these cats difficult to place in new homes. It is important to remember that these cats are still living creatures who need care and deserve the respect of people. These cats are not unhealthy or disease carriers. All cats, stray, feral and owned alike, are all protected under anti-cruelty laws.

• 45 kittens are born for every one human birth in the U.S.
• Approximately 13 million are born in winter, 24 million in summer (Clifton, M., Where cats belong – and where they don’t, ANIMAL PEOPLE [June 2003].)
• There are currently approximately 50 million feral cats. (Levy, J., Humane strategies for controlling feral cat populations [2004], Journal of the AVMA, Vol. 225, No. 9.)

Trap, Neuter, Return (TNR) - the only scientifically proven method of reducing the feral cat population. This has been proven in dozens of communities across the U.S.