PROGRAMS HELPING TO COLLAR FERAL CAT POPULATION

By FRANK JULIANO (fjuliano@ctpost.com)

The network of volunteers, animal lovers and veterinarians committed to reducing the number of feral cats in the region is already having some success. The increasing number of songbirds, raptors, chipmunks, rabbits even rodents indicates that what was once thought to be an intractable problem is slowly being dealt with, said veterinarian John Caltabiano, president of the state's only mobile spay-and-neuter clinic.

"By reducing the number of feral cats, we've allowed the number of rodents to increase, which has brought back the hawks and other raptors that are [rodents'] natural predators," Caltabiano said during a recent visit to the Milford Animal Shelter.

The small birds, chipmunks and rabbits that feral cats prey on are also increasing, he said. At the same time, the incidence of rabies in the state is going down. "That's because raccoons, which are frequently the host for the virus, share habitat and food sources with feral cats," the veterinarian said. "By vaccinating feral cats, we create a buffer against rabies."

Caltabiano's agency, Tait's Every Animal Matters (TEAM), operates the state's only mobile veterinary clinic doing spay and neuter surgeries. More than 40 cats, including about 10 feral ones, received the operation during the van's visit here last week. But TEAM is only one of a network of animal-care providers and volunteers working to reduce what Ryan Loiselle, a TEAM veterinarian, calls a "people problem."

Patricia Liptak, Milford's animal control officer, said more than 600 cats have been sterilized here over the past three years. She relies on a group of veterinarians who perform the surgeries at a discount for animals left in the shelter's care, including four Milford veterinary clinics.

Other non-profit agencies, including the Greater Bridgeport Cat Project and the Greater New Haven Cat Project, also deliver direct assistance to people caring for colonies of feral cats.

The Bridgeport Cat Project, a volunteer group that assists in several Fairfield County towns, does not operate a shelter but assists to spay and neutering efforts, according to the group's answering machine message.

In Trumbull, a group of volunteers operates the town's feral cat program, which has been in operation since 2001. Since that time, more than 150 cats have been trapped and spayed or neutered in Trumbull, according to Liz Smith, the first selectman's executive assistant. The Trumbull program gets about $5,000 in town funding, as well as private donations.

"The feral cat problem is a direct result of irresponsible pet ownership," said Cheryl A. DeFilippo, president of the New Haven project. Her group of volunteers uses cages to humanely trap feral cats and brings them to participating clinics to be sterilized and then returned to the "wild." For cat colonies, that is usually the area around trash bins behind shopping plazas and in woods and marshes.

"It doesn't take long for this problem to spin out of control," said Donna Sicuranza, TEAM's executive director. "A kitten born outside will quickly become feral if it has no human contact."

Liptak and Rick George, Milford's assistant animal control officer, said one of the ways to address the human component of the problem is to charge fees to adopt cats. "This is a living thing, this is a responsibility," Liptak said. The Milford animal shelter at Silver Sands State Park charges $50 for the spay or neuter surgery and vaccinations and $5 to handle the adoption, she said.

That approach is recommended by all of the animal welfare groups active in the city. Charging a fee to adopt a kitten or cat "keeps them out of the hands of irresponsible people," DeFilippo said.

TEAM charges $57 for its services, including the surgery and vaccinations. "We wouldn't give our services away, even if we could afford to, because then it would have no value," Caltabiano said.

Still, that cost is much lower than the $200 a vaccine that some private veterinarians may charge, said Steve Bruner of West Haven. Bruner waited in a steady rain last Monday morning to have his cat, Sparky, get veterinary care at the TEAM van in Milford. "This cat was coming to my window for a long time, but he wouldn't come in," Bruner recalled. Over time Sparky gave up his wild ways, allowing Bruner to feed him and then pet him. Finally, the cat came inside. "He's playful," the West Haven man said of his feline companion. "He can brighten up a dismal day like this."

Sicuranza said experiences like Bruner's are exactly why a "humane" approach to the feral cat problem will work. "I know it is controversial," she said "Some towns are trying to pass ordinances banning residents from feeding feral cats. But feral cats are not wild; they are domestic animals that no one is caring for. "If you don't feed them, you just condemn them to a miserable death by starvation, and they may still leave litters that will repeat the cycle," Sicuranza said.

Breaking this cycle underlies TEAM's approach of spay, neuter and release. The problem then becomes "self-limiting," she said. With fewer cats able to reproduce in the "wild," the number of feral animals is reduced, the animal advocate said. Although no estimates exist of the number of feral cats in the state, programs like TEAM's and the efforts in Bridgeport and New Haven are making a difference.

More than one-third of the 75,000 cats that TEAM surgeons have sterilized since 1997 have been wild, Caltabiano said. Add to that the 600 animals city officials have treated and the 400 a year that the New Haven Cat Project arranges care for and clearly a dent is being made in the problem, animal advocates said.

Liptak said the city's animal control department will loan residents humane traps to catch feral cats, so that they may be brought into the East Broadway shelter to be sterilized.

"We are trying to handle this in a humane, cost-efficient way," said the New Haven Project's DeFilippo. "Some people say 'Let's get rid of all the feral cats,' but that doesn't promote humane values or teach our children respect for animals."