While my post about feral cats from last week might be a bit controversial to some, the LAPD is getting some help from from feral cats with a rat problem. According to the Los Angeles Times, there are a number of places in LA with rat and mice problems, and an animal rescue group has placed a number of feral cats at police stations with rat/mice infestations in order to help solve the problem. The cats don't catch and kill the mice and rats as much as drive them out of the area, it seems, but it still presents a benefit to both the cats (which might have otherwise been destroyed) and the policemen. The rescue group and the police both want the cats to stay wary of people, but should a cat start to become accustomed to people and friendly they are removed and put up for adoption, a "wilder" cat taking their place. This program has been going on for as long as six years in some stations and has been enough of a success for the rescue group to consider recolonizing some feral cats in other areas where rat and mice problems persist (although if the cats evicting rather than killing most of the rats, I wonder where the rats will go in attempts to find a new home).
If you'd like to know more about the "working" feral cat program, click here. Hat-tip to Tracey.
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"Feral" sounds, well, ferocious. Back on the farm (in Kansas) we just called 'em "barn cats".
I wonder where the rats will go in attempts to find a new home
They will go some other place that already has a presumably full occupancy of rats, of course, and thus cause some overcrowding at this other place, which will (should, or at least might) in future stabilize back down to its pre-feral-cat-program levels.
So nimby rats are as good as dead rats. Maybe.
Did you see the recent story in the NYT about how cats are largely responsible for keeping the city's bodegas and small delis rodent-free? The health department wants the cats gone, but most bodega owners say they can have the kitties when they pry them from their cold, dead hands.
I hope the cats are properly vaccinated and neutered ?