Victoria SPCA manager Penny Stone is heard on the tape recording of her interview on C-FAX saying, "Or once in a while we’ll get a feral cat and we can’t find a foster home and it’s throwing itself up against the bars of the cage and its not fair. We have to think of the animals best interest it’s never about what’s easier for us, it’s always about what’s best for the animals."

It’s hard to understand why the BCSPCA isn’t implementing ideas
pioneered and proven elsewhere. If I understand correctly, feral cats
are still routinely euthanized at most SPCA shelters. Even that could
not be argued against logically if there were no other options for them.
But there are options. Viable, proven options. The first line on the
Feral Cat Coalition web site says, “Is spay/neuter/release working?
Statistics from the San Diego Department of Animal Control as of 6/30/97
show that while the number of cats adopted or claimed by owners has
remained fairly constant over the years, there has been a decrease of
almost 50% in the number of cats impounded and killed as compared to
1992 (when the FCC clinics started). Before the FCC was formed, the
number of cats impounded and killed had been going up 15% per year!” So
surely there’s something there worth looking at.

The main page of another prominent feral cat advocacy group, Alley Cat
Allies, says “Briarcliff Manor, NY - “In the past, many animal control
agencies and municipalities have rounded up and euthanized feral cats to
control the population. Extermination is not only inhumane, but also
costly and ineffective, as new cats soon move into the areas where other
cats have been removed. Numerous studies have proven that trap, neuter,
and return is the most successful, practical method of stabilizing the
feral cat population at the least possible cost to local governments,”
said Steve Diller, Executive Director of the SPCA (New York).”
Even the Cat Fanciers’ Association, a prominent mainstream group says, “Policies that
advocate elimination of unowned/feral cats through trapping and
euthanasia have proven to be futile. The existing food attraction and
habitat can rarely be changed; therefore, as cats are removed, more
arrive to fill the niche. Even more significant, this approach, similar
to "pest control", projects to the general public an underlying adverse
attitude toward cats.”

This information is easy to find. Google “feral cats” and you’ll get
2,650,000 results. The groups mentioned are not small, fringe lunatic
groups. So of course it tends to undermine confidence in the BCSPCA that
it appears to have taken no steps toward implementing or even
investigating the possibility of any kind of trap-neuter-release
program. One can’t help wondering what they’re actually doing. Feral
cats are a big problem, not a side issue that can be ignored because
it’s minor. Even their own Community Consultation’s recommendations
in 2001 were: Short-term: Establish a task force to research and identify
solutions regarding the control and protection of feral cats. Long-term:
Develop a policy regarding the control and protection of feral cats
based on task force findings. Build closer relationships with community
partners in finding solutions to feral cat problems. That was almost five years
ago. What has been done? Anything?

In light of all this, any comments from SPCA personnel about caging and
euthanizing feral cats that claim in effect, we’re doing the best we can
or we’re doing the best thing for the animal seem lame and self-serving.