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Unowned cats can be a nuisance that is difficult to address. This chapter explores this issue and provides guidance for management.
Outdoor cats, which includes owned and unowned cats that roam the landscape, are a concern for land humans. Predation by domestic cats is the number one direct, human-caused threat to birds in the United States and Canada. In the United States alone, “free-ranging domestic cats kill 1.3-4.0 billion birds and 6.3-22.3 billion mammals annually. Unowned cats, as opposed to owned pets, cause the majority of this mortality” (Loss et al. 2013; see Outside Resources, below). Beyond direct mortality of wildlife, cats also affect wildlife through injury, nest damage, increased flight which reduces energy levels, decreased food delivery to nestlings, and other behavioral changes.
Outdoor cats can also impact people’s health and their ability to use and enjoy an area. Outdoor cats may carry diseases, especially rabies, and parasites, including toxoplasmosis, which infects humans, domestic animals, and wildlife but requires cats to complete its life cycle; both pose considerable risk to humans and other animals. Outdoor cats also utilize loose soil or sand, such as that found in garden beds and sandboxes, as a latrine. This can be a nuisance in general and spread diseases or parasites through fecal matter. They may scratch or bite people who get too close. Additionally, outdoor cats can be disruptive by fighting, yowling, and spraying.
Under Pennsylvania state law 11 Pa.C.S. § 12410: “Regulation of pets and feral animals,” municipalities are empowered “by ordinance, [to] prohibit and regulate the running at large of dogs, cats, other pets and feral animals.” Such ordinances typically outlaw feeding feral cats, require outdoor cats to be sterilized and identified, and impose penalties on owners of cats who stray onto another’s property. Local governments with such ordinances can help in the resolution of unowned cat problems (which includes feral cats). Unfortunately, there is a discrepancy both in law and in enforcement between ordinances associated with dogs and those associated with cats. Ideally, residents and municipalities will elevate the level of expected care and responsibility, both by personal behavior and local ordinance, for cats to the level already in place for dogs. Landowners should be able to have clarity on their rights to manage unwanted cats on their property. What a landowner can legally do, and what the outcome is if no local animal shelter wants to take an unowned cat, are often difficult to determine.
This section primarily focuses on unowned cats (a category which includes feral cats), as land managers are more likely to be able to address these populations than pets.
Most feasible management options look at reducing populations of unowned cats over the long term. Ongoing management may be necessary as new unowned cats move into an area or unwanted pets or litters are dumped in an area.
The first option for management is to prevent the establishment of unowned cat populations. Neighboring pet owners should be encouraged to have their cats, including barn cats, neutered to reduce unwanted litters of kittens. Local pet owners should also be educated about the catastrophic damage outdoor cats do to native wild animal populations and the ecosystems they belong to, as well as the risks to the welfare of their pets, including injury, parasites, and diseases. Owners should be encouraged to keep cats on a leash, in a cat backpack carrier, or confined to an enclosure (a catio) when outdoors.
Within a given property, land managers can ensure that no one is feeding or providing shelters for populations of unowned cats. This can reduce the likelihood of cat colony establishment. Feeding unowned cats can also lead to unintentionally feeding other wildlife such as mice, racoons, or foxes. These other species can become aggressive to humans in the area of the colony and can carry diseases. Areas where cats can find shelter, such as sheds, should be secured to exclude cats. The municipal governing body should be consulted on what legal options a landowner has to deal with unowned cats on private property.
Some have advocated trapping, neutering, and re-abandoning unowned cats to prevent a population from reproducing. However, cats released back to the environment continue to cause harms to wildlife, domestic animals, and people. Cat colonies also serve as an attractive nuisance, a place where some pet owners choose to dump unwanted pets rather than surrender them to an animal shelter. There is no evidence that the trap-neuter-return approach has succeeded in eliminating the harms caused by populations of cats over the long term. Trap–neuter–return advocates’ arguments, which are often presented to jurisdictions considering actions pertaining to managing unowned cats on the landscape, have been refuted by scientific findings. For example, Longcore et al. (2009) reviewed seven such claims, comparing them to the relevant peer-reviewed scientific research, and found all to be inconsistent with the evidence. Their conclusions have been borne out by several other evidence-based analyses (e.g., Crawford et al. 2019; Alder et al. 2020; Hostetler et al. 2020; Coe et al. 2021; Dutcher et al. 2021)
Unowned cats can be trapped and rehomed to a willing adoption center or shelter. Land managers can consult with local shelters to ensure that there is somewhere that will accept trapped cats. The shelters and other groups may be able to help with trapping efforts. Live cat traps are available, and some organizations and shelters provide free rentals of live cat traps. Cats turned in to shelters may be adopted, returned to the owner if they are tagged strays, or humanely euthanized.
Monitoring of unowned cat populations can be by direct or indirect methods. Direct monitoring involves counting the number of cats within an area. This can be done by estimating numbers observed or by using game cameras. Indirect monitoring involves looking for signs of cats. This can include looking for footprints and scat or using hair traps. It can also include looking for remnants of prey. While cats may fully devour some prey, particularly smaller animals, they often leave behind portions of their meals. When feeding on birds, cats often remove the feathers, leaving a pile at the site. For medium-sized prey, cats may pull out the entrails, which can be found later at the site. Monitoring will help the land manager understand if there are still cats at a site and if the population may be increasing.
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Alder, S., T. Colledge, J. Christensen, T. Gettling, O. Jackson, C. Nielson, and Y. Rice. 2020. The Science of Feral Cats: a Research Based Report. North Utah Valley Animal Services Special Service District, Lindon. 98 pages. (dariuszzdziebk.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/North-Utah-Valley-Animal-Services-2019-The-Science-of-Feral-Cats.pdf, as of 2024)
American Bird Conservancy: Cats Indoors (abcbirds.org/program/cats-indoors, as of 2024)
Coe, S.T., J.A. Elmore, E.C. Elizondo, and S.R. Loss. 2021. Free-ranging domestic cat abundance and sterilization percentage following five years of a trap–neuter–return program. Wildlife Biology 2021:1-8. doi.org/10.2981/wlb.00799 (nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.2981/wlb.00799, as of 2024)
Crawford, H.M., M.C. Calver and P.A. Fleming. 2019. A case of letting the cat out of the bag—why trap-neuter-return is not an ethical solution for stray cat (Felis catus) management. Animals 2019:1-37. doi.org/10.3390/ani9040171 (mdpi.com/2076-2615/9/4/171, as of 2024)
Dutcher, A., K. Pias, G. Sizemore, and S.M. Vantassel. 2021. Free-ranging and feral cats. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. 25 pages. (aphis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/free-ranging-and-feral-cats.pdf, as of 2024)
Hostetler, M., S.M. Wisely, S. Johnson, E.F. Pienaar, and M. Main. 2020. How effective and humane is trap-neuter-release (TNR) for feral cats? University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. 8 pages.
Longcore, T., C. Rich, and L.M. Sullivan. 2009. Critical assessment of claims regarding management of feral cats by trap–neuter–return. Conservation Biology 23:887-894. doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2009.01174.x (urbanwildlands.org/Resources/2009LongcoreetalConBio.pdf, as of 2024)
Loss, S.R., T. Will, and P.P. Marra. 2013. The impact of free-ranging domestic cats on wildlife of the United States. Nature Communications 4:1396-. doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2380 (nature.com/articles/ncomms2380, as of 2024)
Rosenberg, K.V., A.M. Dokter, P.J. Blancher, J.R. Sauer, A.C. Smith, P.A. Smith, J.C. Stanton, A. Panjabi, L. Helft, M. Parr, and P.P. Marra. 2019. Decline of the North American avifauna. Science 366:120-124. doi.org/10.1126/science.aaw1313 (par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10133018, as of 2024)
Schweitzer, S.H., and C.M. Gillin (eds.). 2020. Toolkit to address free-ranging domestic cats (Felis catus) on agency lands managed for native wildlife and ecosystem health. Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. 32 pages. (dariuszzdziebk.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2021-AFWA-Cats-Toolkit.pdf, as of 2024)