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Wild cats get reprieve from N.B. council
BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP
Staff Writer
Published
11/20/03 in the The North South Brunswick Sentinel
NORTH BRUNSWICK — A local animal adoption group
has six months to try to humanely solve the township’s stray cat problem.
On Nov. 12, municipal Judge Ronald
E. Wright, sitting in North Brunswick, granted Animal Lifesavers Pet Adoption Inc. six months to manage the cat colony living
in the woods behind the Ramada Inn on Route 1.
The Township Council agreed to give the group an extension to the previous
deadline of Nov. 12 during its workshop meeting last week as long as the group assumes all costs and ensures new cats are
not introduced into the current population.
"As long as we don’t have any complaints from area residents and
this cat colony does not become a host site where other cats migrate for food, I have no problem giving this group another
six months before we evaluate the site again," council President Francis "Mac" Womack said.
Animal Lifesavers spokeswoman
Linda Espenschied said the nonprofit, volunteer organization that runs a no-kill animal shelter in East Brunswick has aided
the cat colony with food and vaccinations for more than two years.
"We have successfully relocated over 165 cats from
the woods behind the hotel in the last two years," Espenschied said. "With close to $24,000 accruing in vet bills, we’re
running the risk of our veterinarians not letting us bring our animals to them anymore."
Espenschied said Animal Lifesavers
is currently more than $27,000 in debt.
Although the group receives discounted spaying and neutering fees for the animals
from the Edgebrook Animal Hospital, Sayrebrook Animal Hospital, and Spay USA, a national program that seeks to control pet
overpopulation, it has to spend money on rabies vaccinations, distemper checks, testing for feline leukemia and AIDS, and
other shots, Espenschied said.
"For the short term, we are looking for contributions from the community, but in the
long run we hope that the township would implement a low-cost spaying and neutering program," Espenschied said.
Espenschied
said the problems with the feral cat colony began about 10 years ago when local apartment complex tenants allowed their unspayed
and unneutered cats to roam in the woods.
In order to avoid the extermination of the remaining 30 cats in the colony,
Animal Lifesavers requested more time to initiate a trap-neuter-return (TNR) technique.
Kittens and tame cats from
the colony have been and will continue to be adopted into good homes, whereas remaining adult cats, too wild for domestication,
will be returned to the colony, Espenschied said.
"We will only return the cats we feel are not suited to adoption
because they would prefer to live outdoors, void of human contact," Espenschied said.
The East Brunswick PetSmart currently
has cats from the colony up for adoption.
Using the TNR technique, Animal Lifesavers will feed the cats to trap them,
and then spay or neuter them.
Those animals returned to the woods will have a tag clipped to their ears for monitoring.
"We
are all confident that this program will work and the remaining cats will be able to continue living out their lives," Espenschied
said.
The aim of TNR is the control of reproduction within the colony.
Desexing cats in a colony usually inhibits
new cats from entering the population and reduces fighting and spraying within the colony, according to Espenschied.
Drawbacks
of TNR, as outlined by the New Jersey Audubon Society Web site, include cat illness and starvation when the colony becomes
wholly reliant on the trapper for food.
The Audubon Society concluded TNR had little effect on unowned cat populations,
stating, "The cats were still present in the area causing community nuisance, and the spread of fighting and disease amongst
themselves and owned cats."
The Audubon Society also said the technique is a costly and labor-intensive ongoing process
that often does not deter new cats from entering the area.
On the other hand, Alley Cat Allies, a national feral cat
resource group based in Washington, D.C., proposes that TNR is the only cost-effective solution to producing long-term results,
noting successes across the country, including Atlantic City and Cape May.
The agency also reports that feral cats
are generally as healthy as cats that live in homes and present minuscule risk to humans.
Espenschied said that the
cats have no signs of rabies or other feline diseases, with upper respiratory infections being the most common illness.
Animal
Lifesavers wants to remind residents that the 12 acres of woods behind the Ramada Inn is private property monitored by the
Middlesex County Board of Health, animal control officials and local authorities.
Anyone caught trespassing on the
property is subject to a fine or other penalties.
For more information about Animal Lifesavers visit www.petfinder.
org/shelters/nj252.html
Monetary
contributions, payable to Animal Lifesavers Pet Adoption Inc., may be mailed to P.O. Box 552, South River, NJ 08882.
Copyright
2004 Greater Media Newspapers.
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