Nothing feels better than having a stray cat let you pet it, right? When it rubs against your legs in a circle and meows for food, you can’t help but give in and give it whatever food you have on you. Moments like that are okay, but does feeding them in the long run cause more harm than good?
Everyone who has fed stray cats for a while has done it for different reasons. The main one is the simple reality that you pity them and want to do something good for them. Thinking that their chance of survival has been increased by you feeding them.
There are many pros and cons to feeding them. The pros are that you are doing a good deed by helping out cats in need but by doing that for a prolonged period you are causing more harm than good. It’s okay to feed them every once in a while but to be feeding them to the point of them depending on you as their main source of food is cruel. Believe me, I’ve experienced this.
Having cats depending on you can cause a lot of trouble. Not only for them but for you. They are bound to mate and have kittens. And guess who is going to be taking care of them? You. They will have their kittens leech off of you as well as they are since you are allowing it. The kittens won’t learn the necessary survival skills it takes to survive the life they were born into. The most important and necessary skill they won’t learn is how to hunt and scavenge for food and I’ve seen that happen.
I have had some experience with this. See the thing is I would once feed the stray cats in my area. The cats I would feed ended up mating and having kittens. I felt bad and would continue to feed them along with their kittens. That was until I realized that I was causing more harm than good. I stopped feeding them but they didn’t know where to get their food. Most of them scoured the trash bins for food except one. She would meow in hopes of getting a meal again but I resisted. She never picked up how to scavenge for food and I felt extremely guilty.
Another reason for me to feel guilty was the mothers abandoning their kittens to you in hopes that you can take care of them and provide food for them more than they possibly could, or their litter that was too much for her to handle, or She could have also left them in a place she thought was safe to go hunt and scavenge for food. None of these scenarios are good for the kittens.
One night I heard low high-pitched meowing outside my living room window. I looked out but saw nothing so I brushed it off and went on about my life. The next day, during school I got a message from my older sister of a photo of three neonatal kittens. I was shocked and couldn’t wrap my head around it. When I had gone home she had told me that the cat that was visibly pregnant had given birth in the garden and left her kittens to die. I asked her why she took them and if she could have just left to find food. She said that she saw the mother of the kittens sleeping in the sun in front of our home and that didn’t seem to be the case. Of course, we have neighboring children running around in front of where we live who love to chase the cats so she could not have left them there to die. We did our due diligence and raised two of those three kittens into healthy fat cats.
One of the three passed on her third week of living, which brings me to my final reason why you should not feed stray cats, heartbreak. Whether it’s watching them fight over territory, or getting pregnant (again), or having them get sick and die, it will always lead to heartbreak. It
Of course, leaving them be isn’t the only or best option. As the outside runs with diseases, the possibility of getting hit by a car, continuing to mate, or getting picked up by the wrong person. There is another option: Trap, neuter, return, otherwise known as TNR. By capturing stray animals with the intent of neutering or spaying and vaccinating them to then releasing them back into the streets with hopes of lowering the stray population and disease problem. It’s the most humane way of getting them the treatment they need. Since they can’t reproduce you can even continue to feed them. If the stray cat may even show signs of being able to be rehomed then they can be given to an animal shelter or find people who will foster, to have a chance at a better life.
Cats are innocent animals that deserve the world. If you can help them in any way possible is great, but please think before you act and the consequences in the long run. There are local resources available to help. For example, the SPCA for Monterey County offers free walk-ins for the spaying and neutering for feral cats in the morning during seven and eight in the morning. They also offer appointments for a $25 deposit which will be refunded once the cat has been neutered or spayed. The catch is that they need to be brought in humane feral cat traps which are different from a regular carrier. The traps are costly ranging from $30-50 dollars for a one time thing, but they offer a service to rent one for $5 a day or $60 for 12 days. If you see that the cat is calm and has a chance of being rehomed then you can call your local animal shelter and ask if they have room for one more. Everyone should deserve a chance at a better life whether it’s being adopted into a forever home or being TNRed to have a chance at a safer life outside.
