Animal welfare workers, wildlife conservationists find common ground on feral cats

Animal welfare professionals and conservation scientists have clashed over using euthanasia versus the trap, neuter, release technique to manage Hawaiʻi's feral cat population.

For the past five years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Hawaiian Humane Society have found common ground on the issue, culminating in a research paper in the Conversation Biology journal.

It's about “using applied social science disciplines to implement creative outdoor cat management solutions and avoid the trap of one-size-fits-all policies.”

NOAA social scientist and researcher Kirsten Leong said she joined the agency around the time toxoplasmosis was identified as one of the top threats to Hawaiian monk seals.

“NOAA, being the agency that manages recovery of monk seals, we knew that we needed to start getting involved in the outdoor cat management conversation because toxoplasmosis is a disease parasite that only reproduces in the gut of cat,” Leong said.

She said the paper grew out of the realization that conservation workers and the cat welfare community are focused on “different ends of the outdoor cat spectrum.”

“Wildlife conservation professionals are really focused on the cats that are having the greatest impact on wildlife and protected habitats and areas, and the cat welfare community is really focused on those cats that have the relationship with human communities,” Leong said.

“Collectively, neither of our main core techniques is going to work unless we collectively get a handle on the new cats that are coming into the environment, the pet cats,” she added.

Leong and Stephanie Kendrick of the Hawaiian Humane Society, among others, worked on the Pono Cat Parent Pledge to encourage cat owners to raise their pets in a way that does not lead to harming local wildlife.

“We're all coming to this from a place of we want to do what's best for the animals, and also realizing that just breaking down along the same fault lines isn't helping move that forward either,” Kendrick told HPR.

This interview aired on The Conversation on July 16, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.