I'm very tempted to do this

[gemfyre]

I've found that a lot of the tomcats in the neighbourhood are pretty friendly.

I'd like to catch them, take them to the vet to get fixed, then re-release them.

I don't give a shit what the owners think, if half of them even have owners. If you're stupid enough to let your entire tom roam then you deserve it.

And then maybe my neutered girls could have their time outside without being harassed (and PEED ON) by tomcats under the house.

Comments

[stawberi.livejournal.com]

I think that's a very good idea. It's certainly more reasonable than the poster on the brutal_honestly community who stole their neighbors dogs because they let them roam. Seriously though, if you think it's worth it to spend the money, then do it. You'd be doing the whole neighborhood a favour, not to mention the environment.

[stefanina.livejournal.com]

Where I live, we have a program called Operation Catnip to sterilize stray cats. Local vets donate time, and the university donates operating room space, and everyone involved donates supplies.

[imalegend.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a good idea but you'd need to find a vet that would be on your side especially if angry neighbours start to demand answers.

I used to have cats but I kept them inside all the time, that and they were all sterilised.

[sternenglanz.livejournal.com]

Do you have a good local trap-neuter-release program or a low-cost/free vet? I think it's a great idea (yes, even for those who might have owners), but the cost of snipping adds up really quickly.

Poor baby girls getting peed on. :(

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

This is a country town in Australia, not likely!

Nah seriously, I don't think there's anything like that in Australia at all, but re-release of strays/ferals isn't really an option here - they get euthanised because they're too much of a threat to native wildlife.

Then again I believe all the ownerless cats in the U.S. are "stray", and live around human habitation. Here in Aus we have true feral kitties right throughout the country, even in the desert. We've probably had cats in the bush away from any people for 100 years or longer.

[imalegend.livejournal.com]

About those feral kitties in Australia, I don't know if you saw the story of a 35kg cat that was shot in Victoria.

Super-Sized Kitty (http://imalegend.livejournal.com/91928.html)

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

Holy crap!

That explains those mysterious "panthers" people see.

[stefanina.livejournal.com]

In my part of the US, there are domestic stock cats that have gone truly feral. They are killed as quickly as possible, though, they're simply too big a risk to wildlife and people. My state's forestry service is trying to get legislation passed that gives them the right to euthanize any cat caught in state forests. Souds cruel, yes, but housecats are a huge threat to native wildlife, and do not need to be outside unsupervised at all...

[sternenglanz.livejournal.com]

There are definitely feral cat colonies in woods and other unpopulated areas. Mostly we try to stick to TNR because euthanasia usually leads to new cats moving in to occupy the old space, whereas TNR (with regular food drop-offs from kindly volunteers) keeps the population sterile, stable, and cuts down on their squirrel eating.

[mistress-wench.livejournal.com]

My Mopsy is a huge tom, and was really friendly before he got snipped, and probably a bit friendlier afterwards. I got vision in my head of gangs of neutered toms roaming the neighbourhood, attack-smooching little old ladies =X
What's really odd though is that Mopsy's brother isn't exhibiting any kind of sign of being tomcat-like, I think he (Flopsy) has issues..

[blue-cat.livejournal.com]

Primary issue is the legal ones for both you & the vet if they are owned cats - probably not worth going to jail over / being fined huge sums for / vet loosing their licence.

Is there some other means of tracking down cats of unclear ownership?

cat owner here....my two cents

[sio.livejournal.com]

i wonder though....how can they prove that some uncollared, unlicensed feral belongs to them anyway? there are ppl who could say that's their cat and it was illegally neutered in order to make Gem's life miserable/suck money out of her.

if they let them roam around without any proof of ownership (collar and license is best, but at least a collar would be something), then too bad for them. what purpose does an unneutered cat serve anyway? nothing but adding to the pet explosion. it's not like she's taking them in to have their vocal cords ripped out so they can't meow or something. cats do not need their reproductive systems. it's healthier for them to be fixed.