Mississippi cats causing complaints

OXFORD, Miss. -- To solve the problem of undomesticated cats roaming on campus, the University of Mississippi is planning to euthanize them. The feral cats have been roaming around and causing problems, many campus residents said.\n"If you leave your door open or any time you open it, the cats will come right into the house," said Megan Robins, a junior social work major. "Even if you just leave your screen open, they will be waiting on your doorstep. I always see them on my air conditioner or on my car."\nClara Lee Arnold, executive director of the Oxford, Miss., animal shelter, said she has talked to the Department of Housing on campus and Bill McCartney, director of housing, about how to handle the problem and exterminate the cats.\nThis solution to the feral cat problems has been causing controversy with animal advocates on campus. Lisa Hartman, athletic administrative coordinator, has been trying to provide an alternative to putting these cats to sleep. Hartman learned about the issue and researched other possible solutions, including the Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) method promoted by the national organization Alley Cat Allies, she said.\n"I'm trying to offer a more humane method to this problem," Hartman said. "I got on a listserv, and people told me that killing these cats will not solve the problem because more cats would invade the territory. If we neuter or spay them and then release them, then they will not procreate, and then slowly the population will die down."\nAccording to Oxford animal shelter manager Sonya McCullogh, the TNR method has some problems. She said beside neutering and spaying them, the cats also would need to be vaccinated and tested for feline AIDS and leukemia. \n"Alley Cat Allies tries to find people to adopt the feral cat colony," McCullogh said. "They do not just release them and that's it. They find people to feed them and watch over them. There's more to TNR than just fixing them and releasing them. Even after they have been released, they will still have a hard life ahead of them."\nHartman, along with Sally Worsham, athletic administrative secretary, wants to try to make the TNR method a completely voluntary program with no costs for the university. \nAccording to McCullogh, euthanasia is normally free, but if the university brings in mass amounts of cats, the shelter would charge about $2 per cat to cover the costs. Spaying and neutering is $25 per cat, and the vaccinations are $15 each. \nThe shelter does not test for feline AIDS or leukemia, but veterinarians do for about $30 each. McCullogh said if people do not test the cats for these diseases, they can spread to other cats.\nThe university will try to catch the cats by using humane traps, in which the cats are attracted to food placed in a cage, and while they are eating, the cage door closes. According to Arnold, the university, which has borrowed the shelter's traps for this problem before, would need to buy its own cages to handle this problem. The cages cost about $30 each. \nUntamed cats are fearful of humans because they have been raised without human contact. They exist by scavenging through garbage and getting handouts from people, McCullogh said.\n"I see them digging in the trash bins and walking around with trash in their mouths," Robins said.\nOther residents have not had problems with the cats or any complaints about them.\n"I've just seen a few cats --- like one or two, really," said Erica Riley, a senior pharmacy major. "It didn't bother me, and I haven't really heard of that many problems. Personally, I have no problems with it"