In order to keep the stray cat populationunder control, a handful of students and faculty are providing free meals for cats roaming the campus, with a little snip-snip on the side.
Founded in April of 2001 by Dr. Robin Reidand Dr. Richard Tuerk, the Campus Feral CatProgram has continued to care for stray and feral cats, animals that may have otherwise gone unfed and fallen victim to malnourishment.
The essential reason for the program hasbeen to trap, neuter, and release or relocate (TNR) these cats, with the goal of eventually reducing the amount of cats the animal shelter must pick up and try to find homes for.
“The purpose of TNR is to trap strays orferals, cats born and raised without any socialization for humans who are essentially ‘wild’, place adoptable ones up for adoption and vaccinate and neuter the true ferals before releasing them back on campus to live in a small colony,” Dr. Robin Reid, department of literature and languages professor, said. “Some ferals are moved into a barn program in the county, especially if they are trapped in areas of campus that do not allow for a feeding station to be set up.”
Although it is a common misconception about the group, the Campus Feral Cat Program is actually not funded or affiliated with Texas A&M University-Commerce.
The Commerce Humane Association, a nonprofit group that runs a no-kill shelter in Wolfe City, supports it financially.
Due to residence hall restrictions only allowing students to have 10-gallon aquariums with fish for pets, the program does not attempt to adopt the cats out to students or faculty who live on campus.
“We do try to find the cats who are adoptable homes, but not around campus because of the residential policies. Not all the cats are adoptable – a true feral is not one that many would adopt since they do not wish to be petted, and don’t interact well with humans,” Reid said.
In addition to neutering strays and ferals,the Campus Feral Cat Program also maintains three feeding stations around campus that are replenished daily by volunteers within the program.
“Ideally, we would do more to encourage education about spaying/neutering among students on campus, but the “we” I’m discussing here is me and a handful of volunteers (students and faculty and staff). Many of our best volunteers come from the pre-vet student organization, but we haven’t had the numbers to do what the original student group did,” Reid said.
Any students interested in volunteering to help with this program should contact Dr. Robin Reid by email at Robin_Reid@tamu-commerce.edu in order to be put on the mailing list. The program is always in need of volunteers to help put out fresh food and water at the feeding stations.
“Students who are interested in participating on campus can certainly get involved, but I’d encourage everyone to realize that the CHA, especially at the shelter, are a part of this program. They provide invaluable support for the campus program: they collect donations, provide shelter space, run the barn program. Nothing could be done on campus without the help of the CHA!” Reid said.
Although this program was started with many goals in mind, its core purpose remains the same.
“I’d just like to encourage everyone to understand that the purpose of the program is to improve the quality of life for both cats and people. I know people can get frustrated with the problems of strays, but they won’t suddenly disappear without effort, and those efforts do not mean simply killing the ones currently seen on campus. They would be replaced in a few months by others,” Reid said.