Cat-astrophe: City struggles to put collar on feral colonies

Amid recent struggles with stolen cat traps and dumped kittens , Maricopa is experiencing an ongoing cat-astrophe: out-of-control feral cat colonies.

Members of the Maricopa Community Coalition began brainstorming some solutions last month to stem the problem.

“We love them but it’s a huge health issue and people are just dumping [kittens] because they don’t know what to do,” said Brittney McCarthy, owner of Little Whiskers Animal Rescue and a member of the coalition.

She identified Homestead, Alterra and the Villages as “mass breeding grounds” for feral cat colonies.

But the problem isn’t just limited to the subdivisions.

“We have two colonies completely out of control that we can’t get a handle on and that is behind Basha’s and McDonalds,” McCarthy said. “We have been mapping those ones and we are counting between 350 to 400 [cats].”

Currently, Maricopa has limited resources for controlling cat colonies.

Residents can contact groups like Little Whiskers or the Animal Defense League of Arizona to arrange TNR services — trap, neuter, release. The county rents out traps and the city educates the public on TNR practices.

The biggest hurdle, however, appears to be finances. The limited budgets for rescues like Little Whiskers put a strain on the services they can provide, or even how long they can continue to operate.

“Financially, we’re dry,” McCarthy said. “I’ve gone through every savings we had, that I personally had, and every foster is tired. There’s so many grants for Maricopa County and there’s hardly anything for Pinal that we can get.”

Coalition members are hoping the city will become more involved in helping to reduce the population, whether through providing funding or placing a greater emphasis on advocacy.

Several metro Phoenix cities have worked with animal rescues to get a handle on their feral cat colonies by providing some funding for TNR programs. Chandler is one example.

The city’s TNR assistance program , which is operated in part by the Animal Defense League of Arizona, provides up to $1,000 in reimbursement funds for neighborhoods to assist reducing cat colonies.

Last fiscal year, Chandler allotted $5,000 for a TNR pilot program, which involves education and trapping services for registered neighborhoods. This year, the city will increase funding to $30,000 .

Mesa’s TNR Trap Program sells a tiny number of discounted traps to residents for $20, but residents are on their own for coordinating spay and neutering services.

Tempe’s Community Cat Management Program teaches residents how to best manage colonies, loans cat traps and supplies a small amount of funding for TNR surgeries. Between July 2022 and June 2023, the program helped trap, neuter and release around 900 cats.

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