By STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—Elusive and skittish, feral cats slip undetected through the night, on the prowl for whatever little critters they can find to fill their bellies. Brandon used to be home to many of these furtive felines, but the Brandon Feral Cat Program (BFCP) has been working diligently for the last 20 years to reduce the population of undomesticated cats in the town.
“When we started in 2005, there were a lot of feral cats in downtown Brandon,” said Mei Mei Brown, a Brandon resident who is now the President of the Rutland County Humane Society (RCHS) and has been working with BFCP since its inception.
“Brandon was the second-largest contributor of feral cats in Rutland County,” she added. “Only Rutland City had more. They were getting into garbage and dumpsters. It was becoming an issue for the Chamber of Commerce and the town.”
RCHS received a grant for $2,500 from Petco for feral-cat control and thus was born BFCP.
“I was just about to retire and this fell into my lap,” said Brown.
Christi Koch, another Brandon resident who has worked with BFCP since the beginning, recalled a large colony of ferals that had to be extracted from the old Dean farm on Union Street. Though the program follows the principle of “TNR” (trap, neuter, and return), 17 of the cats from that colony were in such poor health that they had to be put down.
“It was the program’s first real year,” said Koch. “We processed 71 cats in all. Money rolled in that year because the cats had been a blight on the town. People were happy to see something being done.”
Since then, the program has trapped, neutered, and returned 252 feral cats, found forever homes for 94, and euthanized only 4.
“Feral cats often have respiratory infections, distemper, and other health issues,” said Brown. “Their lives in the wild are rough and short. They generally only make it a few years.”
The idea behind the program is to sterilize those feral cats that they’re able to trap in order to reduce the population. Cats in their care receive medical treatment and are returned to the streets with a notched ear, to let BFCP workers know that they’ve already been neutered or spayed.
Though BFCP has placed a good number of ferals in forever homes, the goal is to control the population, not to domesticate. And it’s important to remember the distinction between “feral” and “stray.” A feral cat has not been socialized to humans. It’s essentially a wild animal. A stray cat, by contrast, can be a domesticated cat that has run away from home, so to speak, or has been abandoned by its owners.
Some feral cats adjust to life with humans, but many never acclimate to indoor life and never accept contact with people.
“A lot of ferals will bond with a single person, maybe someone who’s given them food for a while,” said Brown. “But generally, if a kitten hasn’t been socialized around humans by the time it’s 10 weeks old, it will probably never adjust to life with them.”
Brown and her husband, Bruce, have fostered numerous ferals over the years. Some come out of their shells and interact sociably. Some remain convinced that every human is a mortal enemy.
“We tend to think of cats as ultimate predators,” said Brown. “But in the wild, cats are prey animals themselves. Around here, they’re prey for coyotes in particular. Feral cats are extremely self-protective.”
In fact, one of the Browns’ foster ferals is still so unapproachable that it has to be “caught” in order to be transported with them to Arizona for the winter. Other foster ferals of theirs are relatively docile, even playful.
But BFCP is not an adoption or rescue service. RCHS always has plenty of domestic cats, for anyone looking for a feline friend. The program really is designed to keep the feral cat population healthy and low.
And Brown notes that although the program has been successful, it’s an ongoing effort. A female cat can produce up to 4 litters per year, with up to 4 kittens per litter. That’s potentially 16 new ferals on the mean streets of Brandon every year.
“People should bring unwanted domestic cats to the Humane Society,” said Koch. “Don’t release them into the wild. They’ll only live a year or so. It’s a horrible life.”
Microchipping your cats is recommended so that runaways can be identified and reunited with their owners.
Anyone who needs to report a feral cat can contact the program through the Humane Society.
“It’s ok to put food out, but call the program,” advised Brown.
“It’s been an amazing, rewarding experience,” she added. “The incidence of feline AIDS and leukemia are way down. The animals are a lot healthier. Whether you are a fan of cats or not, it’s been a good, successful program.”
