Felines Fatales

Dusk descends over Honolulu, and from the shadows of bushes and buildings alien predators come in on little cat feet, sitting on silent haunches. But unlike the fog that also hangs over this city, they do not move on. Instead, they wait to be fed.

The University of Hawaii is overrun by feral house cats—more than one per acre—and it smells that way. They are fed by university professors and students, who also trap and medicate them, get them spayed and castrated, then release them. The idea is that the colony will eventually die out without individuals being subjected to the perceived hideous fate of euthanasia. Pioneered in North America at the University of Washington in the 1980s, it’s called Trap, Neuter, and Return (TNR). It’s all the rage across the United States. And it doesn’t work.

David Karl, rare among TNR practitioners in that he understands and advocates for native ecosystems, is one of the main organizers of the feral cat welfare at the University of Hawaii. He is, in fact, an eminent oceanographer and member of the National Academy of Sciences. One of his fellow professors, ornithologist Sheila Conant, who is committed to removing cats from bird habitat, describes him as “a fantastic scientist who brings in gobs and gobs of money.” Karl tells me that after 10 years of effort, about 80 percent of the feral cats on campus have been sterilized and that, therefore, TNR is working. In the same breath he estimates the population at 400.

The feral cats I encountered at feeding stations at Kapiolani Community College and Ala Moana Park, also in Honolulu, looked sick and sad, not that the ones at the university had struck me as perky. Dining with them at the college was a mongoose, another alien scourge, inadvertently sustained by cat feeders. At the park feral cats crouched, slunk, and crunched kibbles all around me, and above me they padded over rooftops.

My guide was Rachel Neville, manager of the Oahu Invasive Species Committee, which has accomplished the monumental task of ridding the island of coquí frogs from Puerto Rico. Her chances of ridding Oahu of feral cats: exactly zero. On this island alone there are 1,200 people registered as feral cat colony caregivers. And from July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2008, the Hawaiian Humane Society sterilized 2,573 feral cats at no charge for 461 people. That sounds impressive unless you consider that 71 percent to 94 percent of a colony needs to be sterilized before there can even be a decline (provided there’s no immigration) and that there are thought to be at least 100,000 feral cats on the island. Moreover, it’s nearly as hard to trap cats as it is to herd them, and welfare programs for feral cats encourage the dumping of unwanted pets.

According to Alley Cat Allies, a Bethesda, Maryland–based group that promotes both TNR and feral cats, there are now more than two hundred 501-C3–registered feral cat organizations dedicated to TNR. Funding—from private donations, the pet industry, and municipalities—is lavish. Alley Cat Allies, for example, has a staff of 25 and an annual operating budget of $4 million. With an endowment of $300 million, Maddie’s Fund (named for a deceased miniature schnauzer) awards large grants for TNR.

Wildlife biologists and law-enforcement officials contend that in most situations feeding feral cats violates federal law because it facilitates “take” of species protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and/or the Endangered Species Act. The take is prodigious. The American Bird Conservancy estimates that 150 million free-ranging cats kill 500 million birds a year in the United States. And according to a peer-reviewed study published February 24, 2009, in Conservation Biology, TNR causes “hyperpredation,” in which well-fed cats continue to prey on bird, mammal, reptile, and amphibian populations so depressed they can no longer sustain native predators.

The political power of wildlife advocates is dwarfed by that of the feral cat lobby. Last year, for example, it squashed federal legislation to remove exotic species from national wildlife refuges because feral cats might be among them. In Hawaii legislation to ban the feeding of cats on state property is invariably shouted down. “TNR advocates are very well organized and funded,” declares Steve Holmer, director of public relations for the American Bird Conservancy. “They’re getting ordinances passed all over the place.”

One of these places is the City of Los Angeles, which has recently embraced TNR and whose animal services manager, Ed Boks, proclaimed on his blog that National Audubon supports TNR. With considerable effort, Audubon’s director of bird conservation, Greg Butcher, got him to remove that gross misinformation. He describes Boks as “one of these people who believes that the only reason you don’t agree with him is that he hasn’t talked to you enough.” Butcher patiently explained the virtual impossibility of trapping and sterilizing enough cats to eliminate reproduction in a colony, and he reminded Boks of all the good wildlife areas in the jurisdiction of Los Angeles. Finally, he cited National Audubon’s board resolution opposing TNR, which reads in part: “Feral cat colony programs, wherein feral cats are captured, trapped, vaccinated, neutered, and fed, do not eliminate predation on native wildlife or reduce the size of feral cat colonies; and . . . bites, scratches, and fecal contamination from feral and free-ranging pet cats pose a risk to the general public through transmission of diseases such as toxoplasmosis, roundworm, and rabies.”

Each time representatives from the environmental community approached the city to remind it that its commitment to TNR required environmental review under California law, they were blown off. Finally, Los Angeles Audubon, Palos Verdes/South Bay Audubon, the Endangered Habitats League, and the Urban Wildlands Group emphasized the request with a lawsuit, now in progress.