Can feral cats be useful in the war on rats?
Feral cats can be trouble. Critics say they spread diseases and threaten local wildlife populations. But one New York City group hopes a program that puts the cats to work will be the answer: both for the cats and for the city鈥檚 rat infestation.
Volunteers with the New York City Feral Cat Initiative trap groups 鈥� or "colonies" 鈥� of wild cats, neuter and vaccinate them, and return them to the streets. Some cat colonies have been causing trouble in local communities. Others are threatened by construction in the constantly evolving city. When the cats can鈥檛 be returned to their former stomping-grounds, the volunteers re-home them to areas where rats roam.
Some critics say that feral cats are an ineffective long-term solution to the rat problem. Others worry about endangering local wildlife, since cats have been know to prey on birds, chipmunks, and rabbits.听
But proponents argue that deploying feral cats is the only thing that works. New York invested another this summer, the latest in a string of more than 80 ineffective programs. Is a traditional solution still the best one?
鈥淲e used to hire exterminators, but ,鈥� Rebecca Marshall, sustainability manager at the Jacob K. Davits Convention Center, told the Associated Press. 鈥淎nd cats don鈥檛 cost anything.鈥�
Rats, attracted by garbage and food deliveries, have plagued the convention center for years. For the past two years, four feral cats have made the area their home 鈥� and the rats have mostly stayed away.
Rats are a considerable problem, especially in the aging cities of the East Coast. In New York alone, there are . The Center for Disease Control warns that they worldwide. Low-income families 鈥� who live in areas of high infestation 鈥� are particularly susceptible. As such, addressing the problem in a safe and responsible way is critical.
Feral cats have been . The Cats at Work program, attached to Tree House Humane Society, acclimates cats to new territories using 鈥渒itty apartments鈥� equipped with a litter box, food, and toys. After about a month, the cats are at home there, and tend to stay in the area.
The smell of cats alone is enough to scare rats away from a community, Jane Hoffman, president of the Mayor鈥檚 Alliance for NYC鈥檚 animals, told AP.
鈥淎 mother rat will never give birth near a predator because the cats would eat the babies,鈥� she said.
Nationwide, cats kill over 17 million rats a year, according to a study conducted by Anne Beall, a research marketing executive in Chicago. And the actual figure could be up to 4 times higher, considering all the rats cats kill without people watching.听
Ms. Beall and her husband found that feral cats were 鈥渓iterallly the only thing that worked鈥� in their efforts to control pests at home, she told New York Nonprofit Media in July.
The cats are so popular, there鈥檚 a waiting list in Chicago. One cat at Empirical Brewery .听
Not to mention that the program has saved the lives of many cats: because they鈥檙e working, they don鈥檛 have to be euthanized as they were in the past.
But not everyone agrees with One National Institutes of Health study found that using feral cat colonies to fight rats is ineffective at curbing rat populations long-term.听
鈥淭丑别 to 鈥� even substantial population reduction using targeted removal,鈥� the authors wrote. Though the rat population under study was reduced by half in the first year of the study, it rebounded over the second year, regardless of how many cats roamed the alleys.
Harm to wildlife is another concern 鈥� domestic and feral cats together may kill , and a billion or more small animals, in a single year, some experts say.
And if cats don鈥檛 kill rats, they simply leave for other parts of the city, making it a partial solution.
Ms Hoffman, speaking to New York Nonprofit Media, said the cats were 鈥渆ssentially a resource.鈥� For now, cities are tapping that resource in combination with other efforts. New York has begun , which melts into carbon dioxide, suffocating the rats while presenting no threat to humans. Data analysis is helping target hotspots for rat activity.
Another approach is to start by managing the cause. Chicago launched a hard-hitting public information campaign about waste, while New York has a complaints process that allows residents to report 鈥渁 condition that could attract rodents, such as .鈥�
