Recently a member of our faculty had a column run to help raise awareness for a group that has been traveling around feeding several cat colonies around Martin, but I am here to tell you that this band of bandito cat feeders are doing much more harm to the community than they are good.
In this recently published article, Dr. Heidi Huse was addressing the lack of volunteers to help feed Martin’s cat population. They are feeding three ‘colonies’ according to Dr. Huse. In her article she stated that, “the lack of long-term volunteers and funding keeps us from making serious progress in reducing Martin’s unwanted cat population.” I urge you to read that quote as many times as necessary to understand that their idea to reduce Martin’s cat population is to feed these stray animals. Animals that for years thrived on their own in the wild.
While I applaud the effort to help reduce the population of felines in the area, I urge any of you taking the steps that these people are taking to stop immediately. Those of you taking it upon yourselves to prepare a smorgasbord of food for these stray animals are just as much part of the problem as the cats themselves are.
As long as these cats are being fed they are going to stay, and there will be more of them. These cats will not only hang around campus making a mess of things, but they will reproduce. I’m sure many of you have already seen kittens around campus.
While many of you reading this are going to peg me as an enemy to animal kingdom, and I’m sure to get another complaint letter from PETA, I am writing this to offer a solution.
These cats need to be taken away to shelters not catered to in the quad. Feeding these animals is not only attracting more cats, but raccoons and opossums as well. UTM has long been known for its campus, one most of us would consider the most beautiful in the state. However, with more stray animals running loose it’s only a matter of time before they tear things up around here and let’s be honest, this food is going to have to come out somewhere. Maybe there are volunteers following them with litter boxes as well.
Several students and members of staff have complained about this issue and it’s time something is done. There is no reason that I should have to worry about stepping in feline fecal matter while I walk to class, but I do. These animals need to be removed, not catered to.
In closing, I want to make one thing very clear. I am in no way attempting to attack these people on a personal level. As I mentioned, I applaud their efforts, but they are part of the problem, not the solution. If you really want to help there are plenty of local animal shelters in the areas that would provide far better care for these animals than the cruel streets of Martin would.
