Animal lovers work to safely curb thousands of feral cats in Yakima

YAKIMA – Cats were everywhere in the Yakima Humane Society’s spay and neuter clinic on a recent feral day, taking up almost all available floor space. Cats in traps awaited or were recovering from surgery. Other cats were limp on prep tables from anesthesia. Cats in kennels curiously peaked out at the action around them.

All day, clinic staff moved cats from station to station. The whole process had to be efficient to get through dozens of cats in one day.

“It seems very assembly line-like, but we try to produce high quality care,” said veterinary technician Deb Nelson.

The handful of workers at the clinic, along with a scattering of volunteers throughout Yakima County, are on the front lines in the battle to safely and humanely reduce the feral cat population, which has become a local hot topic.

Facts on ferals

Feral cats, also called community or outdoor cats, are cats that live outside and do not belong to anyone. These cats have not been socialized to humans, so they often keep their distance. Because of this, they are often considered unadoptable.

No one knows exactly how many feral cats there are. Animal care groups generally estimate the feral cat population by dividing the local human population by six or seven. For Yakima County, that would put the feral cat population somewhere between 35,000-41,000. Within the city of Yakima that would be around 15,000 cats.

Female cats can produce three litters a year, with up to 10 kittens per litter, said Mie Petersen, manager of the humane society’s spay and neuter clinic.

Cats reach reproductive maturity at a young age, with kittens as young as 4 months old able to get pregnant. Donna Cunningham, who works with the Yakima-based animal welfare group Underground Community Cat Rescue, said she’s seen young feral cats have litters, and in her experience, many of those kittens do not survive.

For many cat rescue groups, one of the most popular methods of safely reducing the feral cat population is trap-alter-return, also called trap-neuter-release. Through this method, people bait rectangular metal cages to capture ferals and transport them to a clinic. There the cats are spayed or neutered, given vaccinations and have the tip of one ear flattened, which is a sign that the cat has been fixed. After an approximately 24-hour recovery period, volunteers return the cats to the area where they found them.

According to cat rescue groups, this practice improves feline welfare. Pregnancy puts stress on animals’ bodies. Mating behaviors like roaming, spraying and fighting can be annoying to humans and dangerous for the animals. Fixed feral cats live overall longer and healthier lives, according to feline advocacy group Alley Cat Allies.

Alley Cat Allies also argues that removing cats from an area altogether creates an unnatural vacuum that other cats will eventually fill, thus starting the cycle over.

TAR is not universally accepted. Some animal welfare groups argue that TAR programs do not do enough to reduce feral cat populations and that outdoor cats suffer an unacceptably poor quality of life.

Yakima residents brought up the issue of too many feral cats during a community forum in December. In April, the Yakima City Council added a section to the city code that allows community members to engage in TAR, without it being considered abandoning animals.

‘Endless’ need for aid

The City Council also decided earlier this year that the Yakima Police Department will handle animal control calls, taking over the duty from the City Code Department.

These calls are handled by a group of community service officers, not sworn police officers, according to Yakima police Lt. Chad Stephens, who oversees the group. Some of these community service officers have gone through training at the Washington State Animal Control Academy.

But most of their cases have to do with dogs, not cats.

“We don’t really respond to anything with cats unless it’s an abuse or neglect type case,” he said. “We don’t come get feral cats.”

Stephens said this is for two reasons. First, feral cats, which are not socialized, are difficult for humans to catch. Preparing a trap for a cat often takes multiple days or even weeks, according to Alley Cat Allies. And the Yakima Humane Society shelter is regularly too full to take in additional animals.

Currently, the work of helping or rescuing feral cats falls to animal-loving individuals or community groups.

Underground Cat Community Rescue receives daily calls about cats. Cunningham estimated the group gets 10 messages a day from people asking for their aid.

Cunningham said cat rescue group has about 10 highly dedicated members and lacks the capacity to take every call. They have a long wait list for their services. They try to prioritize helping people who cannot do the work of trapping and transporting cats themselves.

The rescue group can connect people with resources and mentor them on how to trap and transport cats themselves, said f volunteer Ellen Peterson. But it still hurts to turn people away, along with the cats they aim to help.

“It’s beyond heartbreaking,” Peterson said.

The group focuses on rescuing cats, which includes some TAR work, and getting them ready for adoption. That often means fostering cats and providing veterinary care so they are healthy enough to be admitted to a shelter. They transport many of the cats they rescue to shelters in Seattle, which are generally less crowded.

Though it became an official nonprofit in 2021, the group has been around for many years unofficially. Cunningham estimated UCCR has fostered, adopted out or trapped about 8,000 cats over the years.

Their rescue efforts take up a lot of time. And not every animal makes it. But the success stories keep them motivated, Cunningham and Peterson said.

Cunningham keeps dozens of pictures on her phone of rescued cats. One of them, Princess, had a case of lockjaw so severe, a vet had to remove part of her jawbone. She recently began eating on her own.

Inside the clinic

The Yakima Humane Society clinic is the only one in the area that offers low-cost spay and neuter surgeries for feral cats. Normally, the clinic would charge $35 per feral cat to be fixed, vaccinated and ear-tipped, but a grant from Pawsitive Alliance has covered procedure costs for more than a year.

The feral clinic is held every other Thursday during the spring, summer and fall. The clinic does not operate during the winter because the cold makes it unsafe to trap cats outdoors.

The clinic has been around since 2016. The Humane Society also operates a spay and neuter clinic for pets Mondays-Wednesday and every other Thursday.

The feral clinic’s services are in high demand. Petersen said the clinic has a wait list that is usually two or three months out. On average, clinic staff perform 40-50 surgeries each feral day.

Petersen estimated the clinic has fixed at least 400 cats so far this year.

“I hate to think what it would have been like if we didn’t have the clinic,” Cunningham said.

On feral days, volunteers drop off cats starting at around 7:30 a.m. Petersen said about half of these cats are brought in by individuals and the other half by rescue organizations. The clinic also services some cats from the YHS shelter.

Surgeries start around 9 a.m., said veterinary assistant Adam Sifuentes. Clinic staff give the cats short-term anesthesia, shave the surgery area, clean them and then hand them over to veterinarian Dr. Michelle Beaunaux. She said each surgery takes about six minutes.

Friendly cats or ferals which are young enough to be socialized to humans are taken back to the Yakima Humane Society shelter to be put up for adoption.

The shelter is almost always at full capacity and looking for people willing to foster cats, Petersen said.

Ongoing efforts

With thousands of feral cats in the area, efforts to curb their population are unlikely to stop anytime soon.

The city of Yakima has been discussing options for dealing with feral cats at council meetings this year. City supervising codes inspector Tony Doan said the city is willing to partner with and provide support to local organizations that could assist in TAR services during the April 4 city council meeting.

UCCR’s Peterson said that when one of the organization’s members addressed the city council in January, some council members expressed interest in her suggestions. But so far more expansive programs to safely deal with feral cats are in the idea stage.

Peterson said her dream would be a free, city-run spay and neuter clinic.

The biggest hurdle UCCR runs into is funding, Peterson and Cunningham said. Rescue and feral cats often have significant health issues, which lead to pricey medical bills. And UCCR volunteers have to nurse cats back to health before most shelters will take them. Equipment and transport costs also take a toll.

The group often solicits donations through its Facebook page. Anyone interested in donating or getting involved in helping local cats can check it out, Peterson said.

People can also foster through YHS. Clinic manager Petersen said no prior experience is required

But UCCR’s No. 1 ask of other people is that folks spay or neuter their animals. The more people who get involved in that small way, the fewer animals will need their aid.

“That’s the only way we’re going to dig out of this problem,” Cunningham said.

Contact Vanessa Ontiveros at vontiveros@yakimaherald.com.