Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: chickens in cohousing

[Joanie Connors (jvcphd]

Alleycat Allies www.alleycat.org is a national group that provides
support for people who want to help feral cats.

Their research has shown that destroying feral cats does not reduce
populations (others just take their place) and the only way to limit
them is to have a spay-neuter program for them. The alleycat people
will get you in touch with local resources for starting a
trap-neuter-release program with those stray cats (they also give them
rabies shots).

I helped a group in Arkansas several years ago and it was very
successful. Some of the women who had been feeding the cats made
donations to pay for the expenses - we neutered 20 cats and the
neighborhood is now pretty peaceful (I'm visiting it now).

Interesting discussions!

Joanie




On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 2:07 PM, Cynthia Armistead <cyn [at] technomom.com> 
wrote:
>
> Bonnie Fergusson wrote:
>
>>       Even though it is practically unAmerican to think it, I now believe 
>> Cohousing Communities would be better off (and their pets would be better 
>> off) if there was a policy limiting the number of pets before move in.
>
> When talking about pets, do you also address the issue of feral animals?
>
> I used to visit East Lake Commons fairly regularly, and I was always
> greeted by a bunch of very friendly cats as soon as I got out of the
> parking area. Some would climb right up to ride on my shoulder! I'm a
> cat person, and I did encourage them by petting and talking to them, so
> I wasn't distressed at all. I asked whose cats they were, though, and
> was told that "everybody feeds them." A friend who lived there verified
> that many different people did keep food out, but as far as he could
> tell it was a growing colony of feral cats. Nobody took responsibility
> for taking the cats to the vet, or even trapping them to have them
> spayed/neutered. And the fleas! (I'm one of those people who are beloved
> by fleas and mosquitos--they'll swarm me and my daughter even if nobody
> else gets a single bite.)
>
> I don't know if the feral cats are still there, but it's an issue I
> would have felt needed to be addressed by the community if I had lived
> there.
>
> Namaste,
> Cyn
>
> --
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> will be when you can't help it." Oscar Wilde
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