05-05-2024, 09:24 PM
My point is not that cats don't reproduce fast; they do. My point is that something else has traditionally been keeping the numbers lower than they would be given the table above, which I actually consider reasonable for what it is. My point is about what the data tells us about how and where to apply our efforts. The cat population is indeed capable of increasing at a shocking rate, and it does, up to the point that lack of food provides an upper limit. Sterilizing our way out of the problem is just about the hardest and slowest way to go but it is favored because it is perceived as being humane. Feeding the cats is also favored again because it is perceived as being humane. In TNR as it is practiced today by volunteers we combine the least effective population reduction measure (sterilization) with a policy that removes the traditional cap to population growth (feeding).
Threading this needle of feeding enough to be humane without making the problem worse would be hard enough but we leave it in the hands of volunteers who proudly consider themselves as righteous crusaders who have earned the right to tell the rest of society to shove it. That's why TNR fails.
Threading this needle of feeding enough to be humane without making the problem worse would be hard enough but we leave it in the hands of volunteers who proudly consider themselves as righteous crusaders who have earned the right to tell the rest of society to shove it. That's why TNR fails.