Area's feral cats deserve compassion and protection

I am writing to respond to an article that appeared in the News Transcript on Jan. 24 titled "Freehold Board of Health Turns Attention to Strays." I understand there are many stray cats all over, but trying to remove them or ignore them will not work.

I am an animal activist and have read a few articles on how to manage a feral cat colony. Removing the existing feral cats will only cause new ones to move into that territory. And what will animal control do with the feral cats they do catch? There was no mention of that so I'm assuming the cats will be killed.

Feral cats deserve our compassion and protection and there are effective humane methods to control their population. The article mentioned Trap, Neuter and Return (TNR). This happens to be the best way to control a feral cat colony. After all the cats are sterilized, the colony will stabilize. If new cats appear, they will also have to be sterilized. When a feral cat is sterilized, the vet will put a notch in the cat's ear so it can be identified as being fixed.

There are organizations that deal just with TNR. The Alley Cats Allies organization is one of them. If you want to learn about this subject, go to their Web site and read. Part of TNR is also adopting out the kittens and tame cats.

The adult cats that are wild are the ones returned to their habitat. I also read that people who feed the strays are subject to being fined. Part of the TNR program is to have volunteers care for the colony (which means feeding, too). Volunteers should be instructed on how to do this.

If TNR is to work, a plan has to be developed and volunteers have to be sought to help with this. The article mentioned a fee to pick up a feral cat and have it euthanized. It would be cheaper to have the cat sterilized and vaccinated. There are vets that work with feral cats and organizations that offer lower costs for sterilization of ferals. This is the plan I feel the board of health should be looking in to.

Many of the feral cats are a result of someone dumping their "pet" because they don't want it anymore and then that cat reproduces. We need to use humane ethical methods to reduce feral cat population; killing them is not the answer.

Also, I think Marlboro should get in on the plan to build a new animal shelter (hopefully a no kill shelter). How about it Mr. Mayor? If I could help in any way, I'd be more than willing. All animals deserve our respect and compassion because we all share this world.

Wendy Beyda

Marlboro