I would like to bring your attention to an issue that now confronts us—you, me, and as many as a dozen or so others. This issue concerns a small colony of ten feral cats that has existed in Bay Area Park for approximately thirty years, unobtrusively and largely unnoticed. The cats rarely interact with people or other fauna on a regular basis, and they do not tend to wander widely. This colony has been cared for by approximately 6-10 very dedicated individuals on an informal basis. These volunteers feed the cats twice daily, provide them with needed veterinary care, such as vaccinations, and spay and neuter them to prevent them from reproducing.  Homes are found for many of these cats.

 

Throughout most of this thirty-year period, this cat colony has had a fairly stable census, with many of its members having been there for ten years or longer. Decreases occur most often from unexplained deaths. Increases tend to follow the economic cycles in the surrounding community when people can no longer provide for their pets and will often dump them in the Park and other areas of the surrounding community, such as Armand Bayou Nature Center.

 

Recently we have learned that Mr. Timothy Pylate, director of Armand Bayou Nature Center, has complained about this colony, asserting that some of these cats have traveled through untracked underbrush and woods to prey on birds in the Nature Center, and has initiated action to remove the colony and have the cats euthanized. However, contrary to Mr. Pylate’s assertion, none of the cats from the Park colony are engaging in the activities he describes. This is demonstrably so, as an aid/volunteer at the Nature Center said feral cats are removed from there approximately once a month by animal control, while none of the cats in the Park colony have gone missing in over a year or more. In other words, the cats from the Park colony are clearly not the ones being removed from the Nature Center, which likely are being dumped there.

 

This news has been traumatic for everyone involved with caring for the colony. Aside from the tragic and senseless killing of innocent cats, though, removing the colony from the Park will only serve to exacerbate a serious underlying problem.

 

The problem that faces all of us is the unauthorized dumping of these cats, which severely stresses them and the environment they are cast into. If the existing small colony in Bay Area Park is removed, the volunteers who care for these cats will no longer be involved, and the numbers of cats there will increase in numbers as these uncared for, unneutered animals breed and spread out in search of food to sustain themselves. In the future, it is highly likely that unneutered cats will continue to be dumped in Armand Bayou Nature Center and in Bay Area Park. Sadly, this problem will be of a continuing nature as there is no known way to stop the dumping.

 

The best option, then, is to leave the colony in Bay Area Park in place and intact, which will allow its supporting volunteers to care for it and manage the dumping problem in the Park. This action will not directly help with the dumping problem in the Nature Center, but such action will tend to lessen its impact by preventing the numbers of cats in Bay Area Park from increasing due to the lack of regular care and neutering, which would lead to these cats wandering in search of food.  Mr. Pylate’s actions, then, will only serve to compound the very problem he thinks he is solving.

 

Please take immediate steps to stop this cruel and senseless action!

 

Thank you for your time and I would be willing to discuss this entire matter further, as necessary. I am sure that the members from our volunteer group would be willing to help with efforts to reduce the dumping problem we all face. However, removing the Bay Area Park colony by adopting its members into our own homes is not possible, as most of us have already taken in as many of these animals as we can.

 

 

 

Annette M. Ford

 

(281) 488-0004

annette-ford@att.net