05-17-2015, 09:28 AM
When I worked at a humane society we would encounter this type of problem once every few years. Where I worked it was within our charter (due to city funding) that problems like this one fell onto the humane society to solve. I'm not surprised that the Big Island humane society can't really help you because its outside of the services they offer.
One property had roughly 80 cats to deal with (if you see 15 to 20 cats its probably more than 15 to 20) and we were able to trap most of them in a few days. The cats you are dealing with aren't completely feral so they won't be too timid about traps and are accustomed to eating cat food. We would set out about 5 traps at a time, baited with canned cat food (the fishy varieties work best), and check them every 2 hours. Usually the traps were all full every two hours for the first couple of days. The more skittish ones were more difficult to trap (though hunger eventually takes its toll and brings them in) and some cats will be impossible to trap. But those will eventually fade away on their own. Less so much here without a brutal winter.
All that being said, almost all the cats brought into the Keaau humane society are euthanized. I'm NOT suggesting that you euthanize the cats on-site, but if that is going to be the outcome regardless, please make sure that the method used is humane and legal.
ETA: accuracy
One property had roughly 80 cats to deal with (if you see 15 to 20 cats its probably more than 15 to 20) and we were able to trap most of them in a few days. The cats you are dealing with aren't completely feral so they won't be too timid about traps and are accustomed to eating cat food. We would set out about 5 traps at a time, baited with canned cat food (the fishy varieties work best), and check them every 2 hours. Usually the traps were all full every two hours for the first couple of days. The more skittish ones were more difficult to trap (though hunger eventually takes its toll and brings them in) and some cats will be impossible to trap. But those will eventually fade away on their own. Less so much here without a brutal winter.
All that being said, almost all the cats brought into the Keaau humane society are euthanized. I'm NOT suggesting that you euthanize the cats on-site, but if that is going to be the outcome regardless, please make sure that the method used is humane and legal.
ETA: accuracy