Students disturbed by stray cats in heat; Pre-Vet Club vows to fix problem
The Pre-Vet Club plans to trap, neuter and release more than 30 feral cats from various areas on campus to help prevent annoyances to students.
There are more than 30 feral cats on campus located mainly around the Junction and towers, said Steven Elmer, a junior majoring in bio-veterinary science and president of the Pre-Vet Club. With spring here, many female cats are going into heat and crying out, Elmer said, resulting in many complaints by students in the resident halls on main campus.
“Regardless whether you live on campus or not, it does affect you, because as the population grows, they are going to become more and more of a nuisance,” Elmer said. “Right now, that’s what [Housing] is having a problem with over on main campus, they are having cats coming into heat and crying out all night keeping people up.”
Lt. Steven Milne of USU campus police said he receives calls about stray cats and either catches them or has animal control respond.
“It was a problem years ago, then it seemed to have gone away,” Milne said. “It seems like it is on the rise again, and the concern is when people feed the stray cats and are bitten and have the risk of getting rabies.”
Jodi Ashworth, a freshman majoring in special education, said she used to live in Valley View Tower and frequently saw the feral cats.
“They are everywhere,” Ashworth said. “I didn’t see them as too much of a nuisance, they were just there and would run away if you got near them.”
Ashworth said the problem with the number of cats living near the dorms was not their presence, but with residents bringing them into the buildings.
“There are huge signs saying ‘fines if you bring cats in,'” Ashworth said. “If they don’t do something now [about the cat population] it will become a big problem.”
Eleanor Jensen, the Pre-Vet Club adviser and clinical veterinarian, will perform the surgeries free of charge, Elmer said.
“I think it is a very worthwhile cause and that’s why I decided I would donate my time and my skills to help and control the pet overpopulation problem,” Jensen said.
Elmer said he understands some people may not agree with spaying and neutering the feral cats.
“I know there are some people who are against it, because they feel it is cruel and inhumane,” Elmer said. “But in response to that, which is more cruel and inhumane, having them fixed or having kittens be run over by cars on campus or starve to death?”
Spaying and neutering the feral cats on campus, Jensen said, would allow the population of cats to be easily controlled. The feral cats establish a hierarchy and are extremely territorial, Jensen said, and if the cats are removed from their location, then more will take their place. By spaying and neutering the cats, the population is easily controlled, Jensen said; essentially the 30 cats on campus would remain at the same number after the project.
The benefits are numerous, Elmer said, from a public health and safety standpoint to the well-being of the cats. One major benefit, Elmer said, is it reduces the cat’s risk of contracting reproductive tract infections and/or cancers of the reproductive tract.
“The [infections] are just nasty,” Elmer said. “They are very detrimental to the cat’s health.”
The cats also benefit campus through controlling the rodent population and eating discarded food, Elmer said.
“The [cats] are litter cleaners, in picking up people’s pizza crust that they drop,” Elmer said. “There are benefits in that … but the campus is just about at the maximum capacity that it can have without them becoming a major problem.”
The program will be funded by donations from the pre vet fundraiser, Elmer said. The Pre-Vet Club placed donation cans in different areas on campus, Elmer said, with the main one in front of the office of the Veterinary Science Building. The club will also be selling donuts and drinks to help create awareness.
The main objective of the project is to help control the feline population on campus, Elmer said, but in doing so, the club is trying to educate the student body and public about the advantages of having their pets spayed or neutered.
“One cat and all of her offspring can produce, in nine years, 11,606,077 cats,” Elmer said. “We have about 30 cats now. If something is not done soon, it’s going to get really out of hand.”
Personal pets become more loving pets when spayed and neutered, Elmer said, because they are not being driven by sex hormones. If you have your female cat spayed, you get rid of their problems, such as crying while in heat, Elmer said.
“Women with PMS, it stops,” Elmer said. “But female cats are very known for having mood swings.”
The surgeries will begin as soon as funds are collected, Elmer said. The club hopes to have the process started before finals.
“Ideally, it would be good to start as soon as possible, the reason being most of the female cats have either cycled and are pregnant now or are approaching coming into heat,” Jensen said.
Jensen said the process of trapping the animals is humane and believes the surgeries are a beneficial thing as well. This project has been done throughout the state of Utah for a few years, Jensen said, and to identify which cats have been spayed or neutered, the tip of the right ear is clipped off.
“I don’t think that should be an issue [the surgeries], whether it is humane or inhumane, I think we should focus on the overpopulation of cats and the number that are euthanasied each day,” Jensen said.
-kcashton@cc.usu.edu