Town of Wheatfield aids feral cat program

By Benjamin Joe

The Wheatfield Town Board funded Paws In The Falls with $1,000 to operate a feral cat trap and neuter activities within the municipality. The animal shelter group has a facility off Cayuga Drive and formally presented at the Town Board’s regular business meeting on Monday.

Nicole Dyer, a veterinarian technician, gave the startling statistic of two unneutered and unspayed cats giving rise to a massive family tree of 420,000 cats in a period of seven years.

“Kittens can be in heat as early as 4 months. They are able to reproduce. They also have heat cycles every two weeks, making them more fertile. After pregnancy, they can be reimpregnated after only two weeks after having a litter,” Dyer said. “Some cats can have as much as 19 cats in one litter.”

The solution, according to Dyer, is to introduce TNVR programs to the community.

“We’re going to be talking a little bit about trap-neuter-vaccinate and release, and our cat colonies here in Niagara County,” she said. “Basically, we are trapping our community cats in a humane manner. We spay, we neuter, we vaccinate. … Once the cat is rehabilitated after surgery, we release them back to the original colony. This is considered the most effective way to manage the feral cat population.”

Not only does the program slow the rate of growth of feral cat colonies, Dyer said the animals will live a better life thanks to vaccinations administered to trapped feral cats.

The diseases the program vaccinates for are rabies, which transmits to dogs, cats and ferrets, as well as toxoplasmosis, which can be found in cat feces and is toxic to humans with the potential to cause reproductive issues.

“Another disease that we need to be concerned with is the FIV FeLV. This is only for cats,” Dyer said. “This is an immune deficiency disease and it can be fatal.”

According to Dyer, the cost of the program is about $100 per cat for the surgeries and vaccinations.

“Obviously, there’s going to be some funding that is needed for this to be a successful program,” she said. “So, we are urgently in need of financial support from grants and donations, and from the Town of Wheatfield. This will cover the costs of the vaccines, the sterilization, the food, the medication, the recovery space and other necessary supplies. Without any help, we cannot continue our mission to control the feral cat population.”

Supervisor Don MacSwan admitted that, while he had never considered himself a cat person, he has taken to feeding six feral cats that he believes were living in a local barn that had been torn down. Of the six, one of them is showing signs of pregnancy.

“Even in Wheatfield now, you can see on social media, there are feral cats all over the place,” he said.

“If you can give me something I can give to residents … who have feral cats and can come to you. … One hundred dollars is nothing, if you love your cats the way I do.”

John Bondi, a Wheatfield constable, who also works at Niagara SPCA, spoke at the meeting.

“This is an issue the entire county, Western New York, the country … you won’t see it fixed overnight, but if it’s done consistently … (it can be done), and they have the funding and space. Space is the big thing,” he said.

MacSwan also said the group could come back in October, during budget season, for a possible contract in the town.

“When it comes to budget time, if you want to come back and make an agreement like we’ve had with the SPCA, that would be the time to do it,” he said.

Before receiving the donation, Dyer also gave the alternative to the program.

“By doing this, it reduces shelter intake,” she said. “If someone finds a cat – they don’t know if it’s feral – or they bring any cat to the shelter, and if that cat turns out to be unadoptable, it’s euthanized,” she said. “So why not do what’s best for the animal? Get it, trap it, spay and neuter, vaccinate, and return it back to the colony.”