My park has an extra amount of stray cats running around causing trouble. The local animal control will not deal with cats, however they will pick up stray dogs.
As always, some of the residents feed them. Has anyone come up with any creative ideas to get rid of cats. I’m looking for ways to work with the residents so they don’t sabotage my efforts.
I was thinking about adding something to the park rules outlawing pet food outside but I don’t think it could be enforced.
My residents are split between cat lovers and cat haters.
When necessary I catch them in a live trap and deliver them to the humane society or local animal control. Usually the tenants that hate cats will be more than happy assisting with setting the traps.
We are in the country so it is not a major problem as the animals (foxes, bears, fishers, wolf etc) generally control the strays.
There is no known solution to cats. You are only allowed to live trap them. Cats are very smart, and will not climb in the traps. As a result, you can spend a ton of time and money and get absolutely nowhere. The good news is that the cats eat all the rodents, so your cat population has eliminated your mice and rat population (which is an even bigger problem), so they have partially done you a favor. Tenants will always feed stray cats, and it’s not worth your time to monitor this behavior. Just let the cats roam free, and don’t obsess over it. At least cats are kind of cute. It could be skunks.
We are more aggressive than frank. We use live traps and wet cat food, and have very good luck in trapping the cats.
Here is the deal- cats carry flees, and if they get under homes, the flees will migrate into the homes and the tenants will be very unhappy. Also- just this year we had a tenant bit by a stray cat that had rabies. That is very eye opening, and for those that do not know- if your bite goes too long untreated you die. There is no magic vaccine. Once we had a rabid cat- the city and county set their traps.
If we catch the cats- we put up a little pic of the cat and a description and hold it for 72 hours… we call the holding pen- Kitmo… though we do not water-board them for owner info… after 72 hours we drop them at a pound, or re-home them on craigslist.
We have a trick we use that is 100% effective in catching strays. Every community has tenants that will feed strays and it is very simple to find out who they are. They usually live next door to the tenants that complain the most about strays.
Approach these tenants that are feeding strays and explain that you have numerous friends in the country with farms looking for cats to control rodents in the barns and that you will find good homes for all strays.
You then get them to set the trap and catch the strays. Problem solved and off they go to the pound.
Yeah, this is how you loose tenants. Charge extra for pets it’s a win win. Statistically if you allow pets cats or dogs you have a higher tenancy occupancy. And you also make more money. I allow pets in my park there are less mice and rats because of the cats. It’s unavoidable to not have strays if you live in the country side.
Stray cats arent the issue. The tenants who let them irritate them are. Been through this, ALL kinds of animals stray through the Park at night. Am I suppose to keep them all out? This is not an issue unless you help make it one. Feeding not allowed.