When I joined Cat Action Trust 1977 seven years after the Trust's foundation, we formed  the Central London Branch, yet there was still a huge mountain to climb: humane feral cat control through neutering was a fairly new idea. There were colonies of 20-30 cats everywhere in London - on waste lands, industrial estates, hospital grounds, train stations, in derelict houses and even in private gardens.

We had to work hard to convince people that our humane approach was more effective and longer lasting. One of the difficulties we had to overcome was the mistrust of people who had had experience with pest control firms and who feared we would have the cats destroyed. For that reason they usually did not ring us for help until the colony had exploded in numbers and most of the kittens were older and untameable. Proving our work and our good intentions through tireless trapping, neutering, taming and rehoming cats or returning them to site in our big city, we gradually won the argument even at big sites that regularly had their cats destroyed only to see a new colony taking their place. Most people now know what feral cats are and how fast they multiply, so now they ring us sooner - hopefully while the kittens are still tiny and easy to rehabilitate.

 

Another important task was the spreading of the neutering message among cat owners and making them understand that letting their cat have even one litter can easily be the start of hundreds if not thousand of cats (see our leaflet WHY we have our cats neutered).

We can proudly say that, apart from having prevented thousands of kittens from being born, we have increased the awareness of the multicultural public in our unique and beautiful city, but the situation would have improved even more if it was not for irresponsible cat owners who continue to abandon their cats.

Meanwhile we soldier on bravely.  If you want to help us with our exciting work - for instance with driving, please contact us. We also love armchair supporters, because money is always short and donations are always gratefully accepted. Details can be found on the Contacts page.

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