The Malevolent Public

Ellen Kowalski, a Maryland resident, recently wrote to Cat Fancy magazine describing how the feral cats she rescues in Baltimore are used for "target practice" by kids with "BB guns, firearms, and even bows and arrows. The cats in the area are well fed," she says, "but they have eye infections, abscesses, sores, and deformed limbs." Kowalski has very strong opinions regarding the neuter-and-release method: "This practice should be called the neuter-and-abandon method because that's what the advocates are really doing. These people congratulate themselves for neutering feral cats and saving unborn kittens from lives of misery. Then they return the neutered cats to the same lives of misery."
The concerns of the people living near feral cat colonies also need to be addressed. Neutering cats does not keep them from digging up gardens, fighting, getting into garbage, or causing any of the many other problems cats can cause. Additionally, cats need to be protected from people who dislike them and may try to harm them. People may become especially disturbed if, as in most of the cases studied thus far, the numbers of cats in the colony increase.
"We applaud the efforts of people who care for ferals," says Marc Paulhus, HSUS vice president for companion animals. "But they can't stop their caring at stopping reproduction; they need to go on to taming and finding proper homes for these animals."
LINK