Feral cats
Feral cats
You should help feed and care for them
I’m glad to see more interest in the feral cat issue. It’s a community issue that has been ignored except by a few people.
Mr. Thompson’s letter had some good points but he was ill-informed on some issues. Hawaii has no rabbits and cats do survive outside hence their proliferation.
Cats are a valuable asset as vermin control, but too much of a good thing is still too much. Spay and neuter programs help control the numbers.
Communities around the world have dealt with this issue in a humane and sensible way. Feeding them is a means to be able to trap, spay or neuter and monitor the colony. It also helps keep them from scavenging in garbage cans (except to get that rat), begging at restaurants and back doors and hunting birds.
Cats usually get the unhealthy and old birds and are not egg eaters but kill rats that do get the eggs.
Dr. Nakaya brought up a good point in her letter about testing. As with the coral graffiti issue, not everybody will agree but at lest there can be a discussion and compromise.
If you have cats on your property take responsibility, give them a little dry food, plenty of fresh water, get them spayed or neutered and decide whether to test or not.
There are a number of organizations around the island that will spay or neuter at low cost or free — Hawaii Island Humane Society and AdvoCATS are in Kona.
If someone is feeding cats in your area see if you can help them out. They pay for the food out of their own pockets and some are having a hard time and are seeing more cats that have been abandoned. They did not put the cats there.
The old airport and the dump are places that people dump unwanted cats. Can you imagine the rat problem that would exist if they weren’t there?
This is the land of aloha yet we mistreat one of the most loved animals in the world. Cats are being cruelly murdered at the harbor, again. Is this showing aloha? Is this what civilized people do or put up with?
Cats domesticated themselves when they saw that humans had mice and rats. Let’s step up to the plate and manage these beautiful animals with aloha and common sense.
M.G. Wolfe
Kona