They inhabit Middletown’s alleyways, industrial areas and neighborhoods. They feed on discarded food, mice, small birds and handouts from sympathetic residents. They are Middletown’s stray and feral cats, and they are rampant.
“I feel like it’s an epidemic. You can’t walk up to somebody on the street and not have them know about a stray cat somewhere,” said Deb Bagley, founder and director of the Middletown-based Connecticut Association To Assure Love and End Suffering (C.A.T.A.L.E.S.).
The term “stray” is applied to cats that escape a household or are abandoned by their owner, whereas “feral” refers to cats born outside of captivity.
There is no shortage of feral felines in Middletown. According to Bagley, one female and her offspring can produce as many as 470,000 kittens in a span of seven years.
The rapid increase in stray cats is cause for concern among many Middletown residents. The city does not have a public agency devoted to stray cats and the daunting task of caring for these furry vagrants falls almost entirely on private groups such as C.A.T.A.L.E.S and the Durham-based Cause for Paws.
Both groups operate on a trap-neuter-return (TNR) policy in which stray and feral cats are captured, neutered or spayed, vaccinated against distemper, rabies, and feline aids, then released back into their colony.
Though neither group supports euthanasia as a means of decreasing the stray and feral population, Cause for Paws puts sick cats to sleep.
“It’s not that every kitten doesn’t deserve to live,” Cause for Paws President Brenda Eddy said. “It’s just not feasible to keep sick ones alive.”
Disease is one of the primary predators of stray and feral cats, which rarely live past six years old. Feline leukemia and feline aids, diseases that cannot be transmitted to humans, are common among cats living in the wild. Feline aids can be prevented through vaccination and treatments are available for feline leukemia. Both are less expensive than euthanasia—a fact that leads Bagley to question the practice of euthanizing sick cats.
“I’ve had a leukemia cat live 20 years… It’s hard to kill a leukemia cat that isn’t sick.”
Both C.A.T.A.L.E.S and Cause for Paws take in healthy strays and put them up for adoption. This year, C.A.T.A.L.E.S has placed 150 cats in homes throughout the city, but Bagley said she is struggling to find new homes willing to adopt. She is presently caring for 21 kittens ranging in age from six weeks to four months old, and said she receives between 12 and 15 phone calls each day from owners trying to put unwanted cats up for adoption.
“There’s an extreme shortage of good homes,” she said. “Most people who are willing to own multiple cats already have them.”
According to Cause for Paws President Brenda Eddy, most strays were intentionally abandoned by their owners.
“It’s irresponsible owners… who don’t want to take care of their animals, so they dump them in industrial areas,” Eddy said.
Bagley said the city will not see reductions in stray and feral cat populations until it provides funding for groups like hers.
“I’ve been a little cautious about approaching the city until I have a plan,” she said. “My biggest goal is to implement a spay/neuter program here in the city so I don’t have to do all the legwork myself.”
While C.A.T.A.L.E.S awaits public funding, the group raises money through bake sales, tag sales and the like. Bagley said she is presently seeking volunteers to care for cats and sell cocoa and cider at the organization’s annual Christmas tree sale.
For more information about C.A.T.A.L.E.S call the C.A.T.A.L.E.S Office at 860-344-9043 or email them at catales_2000@yahoo.com.