Posted on 05/12/2021 10:34:18 AM PDT by Red Badger
A Chicago animal shelter has released 1,000 feral cats in a bid to fight the city’s ongoing rat infestations.
The Tree House Humane Society began its Cats at Work programme back in 2012 and not only does it give the cats a place to stay, but it helps deter rats from areas they’re not wanted.
Since the programme began, the shelter has released more than 1,000 cats in Chicago, who are now apparently ‘living their best lives’.
Tree House’s website explains:
After trapping and neutering a Community Cat, there are times when those cats cannot be reintegrated into their former colonies. This can be for a variety of reasons, including their former location being demolished (as in the case of cats living in abandoned buildings,) dangerous locations, etc. It is for these special cases that Tree house created the Cats at Work program.
The cats don’t actually eat the rats, however. Sarah Liss from the shelter told WGN9 that, while the cats will kill the rats when they first arrive at their new location, it’s the felines’ pheromones that keeps them away.
Tree House’s website further details that cats are placed two or three at a time into residential or commercial settings to tackle Chicago’s rat problem in an ‘environmentally friendly way’. While they don’t stay in someone’s actual home, property and business owners provide the cats with food, water and shelter, and generally keen an eye on them.
Cats eating (PA Images)PA Images Apparently, in most cases, the working cats go on to become ‘beloved members of the family or team’. Some have even gone on to have their own Instagram pages.
The site added, ‘These are feral cats who wouldn’t thrive in a home or shelter environment. By placing them in Cats at Work colonies, we’re able to make sure they’re living their best lives.’
Sounds like the purrfect solution.
I hoped it would read Chicago releases 2000 Feral yutes over the middle of the Arctic Ocean…
If they want to get rid of RATS, they need to use dogs.
Cats are big enough for mice and other rodents, but they aren’t big enough for rats.
Surprised it wasn’t a racoon.
Cities are overrun with racoons, but they are so good at hiding, people don’t realize they are present.
Ms. Light in the Loafers would make a great cat herder.
We have a spare tiger running around loose in Houston.
Next up: Bill Gates announces the release of genetically modified cat fleas to eliminate the feral cat population in Chicago!
But every time the cats hear a can opener there will be a huge stampede in Chicago.
So after all the rats are gone, how do you get rid of the feral cats? They will infest your flower gardens, open all your garbage bags and strew it everywhere, reproduce themselves constantly.
. They will wake you up at night scratching on your screens and having cat fights. They will kill your songbirds and all their baby birds. Soon your whole neighborhood will smell like a giant litter box, almost like a pig farm.
Feral cats rank right up there with rats after a while.
This is Chicago.
They won’t notice.........................
Several years ago we bought a 10 acre property that was infested with feral cats. The city wouldn’t let me use them for target practice so we started catching, fixing and releasing them. We fixed 40 the first year and 20 the next. We got the last of the breeders about 5 years ago and the total population of the colony has gradually dropped down to less than a half-dozen and is still falling. Feral cats have an average life span of 3-4 years, so if you can stop them from breeding they all eventually die off.
I still put feed out for them so I can keep count and watch out for any new breeders. A couple of times pregnant cats showed up that I had never seen before and I am pretty sure they were being dumped there. I have never seen a live snake or rat on the property, but occasionally come across the remains of half eaten ones. Lots of feathers too.
Anyway I heard some commotion above me in the ceiling. Sounded like something scratching and squeaking. Just then a part of the old plaster ceiling fell out and down came the biggest rat I ever saw. At first I thought it was a cat. It was fat, brown big and ugly.
When I referred to the patrons at the Archer bar It was because their location was formerly in one ward (23rd) that had been remapped into another the. The impact of that remapping is posted in my website
http://www.theusmat.com/mdwbea.htm
LOL
Stacy Abrams?...............
Yeah, just might have been.
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