Leaders at Angelo State University expressed willingness to work with volunteers proposing a safe, effective and humane way of dealing with the university's feral cat problem. Somehow the word didn't get to workers charged with trapping. Early this week seven ASU cats were taken to the San Angelo Animal Shelter. Today, two more trapped cats arrived at the shelter.
Texas Tech University has a feral cat program, headed by a former Marketing employee. Oddly, ASU has two marketing employees who've gone to great lengths to save university cats in peril. One relocated most of ASU's cats during a prior trap/kill/starve program, which occurred under Dr. Jim Hindman. After a costly rodent infestation, this effort was judged a mistake.
Why does ASU seem unable to learn in this regard, either from their or others' experience? Sixteen years ago the University of Texas enacted their feral cat colony. It safely and dramatically reduced their cat population from 115 to 15.
For some reason a sixteen day reprieve couldn't be enacted, at least effectively. Such a hold would've allowed community and university animal organizations to assist ASU. Of the nine, two have been euthanized. The other seven were saved by a concerned citizen.
Was Winston, a gray and white cat who hung around the UC, one of the victims? If so, the university lost an icon.
Many worked to hard in short order to save ASU's cats. The list includes area citizens and employees. Let's hope word gets up and down the chain of command and that ASU becomes the latest Texas university with a vibrant, effective feral cat program.
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