Caring members of the community - including Rhodes University staff and students - have been taking care of feral cats for many years in Grahamstown. These volunteer efforts are part of the "Grahamstown Feral Cat Project (GFCP)".
Caring for feral cats - the humane and sustainable way.	Feral Cats Guide  |  Grahamstown Feral Cat Project pamphlet

What GFCP volunteers do: 

• Trap, Neuter & Release (TNR): Volunteers humanely trap feral cats, take them to the vet to be spayed or neutered; the tip of the right ear is snipped off to identify those that have been sterilized. They then return the cats to their colonies to live out their lives.

TNR is globally recognised as the most humane, least costly, most efficient, and sustainable way of stabilizing feral cat populations. 

• Feral Cat Caretakers: Volunteers 'adopt a colony', provide food and adequate shelter, monitor the feral cats' health, and ensure that all individuals in the colony are in fact sterilised.

The humane actions carried out by the "Grahamstown Feral Cat Project" volunteers are not linked to any other organisation. They rely on the assistance of Grahamstown Veterinary Clinic and on donations from the public. 

The project promotes responsible pet ownership. This includes proper care (feeding, vaccination and preventative treatment against parasites, etc) and sterilisation to prevent unplanned kittens and reduce the number of homeless animals.

At UWC, a similar Feral Cat Project (TufCat) has been running with great success for many years. Research has shown TNR to be a more sustainable - and humane - approach to managing feral cat populations. Feral cats perform a useful function in controlling problem rodents. The paper, Evaluation of the effect of a long-term trap-neuter-return and adoption program on a free-roaming cat population, describes a study of 155 free-roaming cats on a university campus; the cats were trapped, neutered, then adopted or returned; the population decreased by 66% over 11 years. By contrast, removal of feral cats (through euthanasia etc) merely opens up their territory to other breeding individuals that continue to produce kittens, resulting in unsustainable population growth. This letter is attributed to a vet: Today I spayed a cat‌.

Get involved in the ACTION

If you are a compassionate and caring person, and would like to relieve the difficult existence of feral cats, here are some ways to help:

• Make regular donations - food or money: GRAHAMSTOWN VETERINARY CLINIC, Standard Bank account 282 625 054, Branch Code 050917; be sure to give the REFERENCE: W/CAT + Your Name - if possible, email proof of payment to Lynne on l.grant(at)nelm.org.za to ensure the donation is correctly allocated.

No donation is too small - nor too big for that matter! All funds go directly to neutering and caring for feral cats. Costs (as at June 2018):

Spays: R474
  - or R545 if pregnant or on heat
Neuters: R303
Consultations: R163.

• TNR: Assist with Trap-Neuter-Release activities.

• Caretaking: Become a cat colony caretaker.

• Adopt or foster: Fostercare helps gentle feral kittens, in readiness for adoption. Adoption fee R500 - includes first deworming, inoculation and obligatory sterilisation.

• Role-modelling: Practice responsible pet ownership.

• Awareness-raising: Raise public awareness about animal welfare.

• Fundraising: Volunteer a little of your time to help raise funds.

Need MORE INFO?

• ‌Grahamstown Feral Cat Project - Facebook
  

• Pets

• Animal care

Go to the Rhodes University ENVIRONMENT front page. Suggestions/Questions? Contact environment(at)ru.ac.za

Last Modified: Fri, 01 Jun 2018 11:37:58 SAST