District’s dander up over cats

For years, an informal group of volunteers has watched over a feral cat colony making its home in the 5000 block of West Sahara Avenue, nestled in drainage pipes behind Kindred Hospital and the Clark County School District administration building.

They've had the felines immunized, and spayed and neutered. When there were kittens, they found homes for them, as well as for the more domesticated of the cat colony's residents.

A population that once numbered several dozen -- "a field of cats" is how one caretaker described it -- now numbers fewer than 15.

But the felines' lease may have run out. Officials with the hospital and the school district, citing health concerns, have made plans to remove the cats within a month.

The cats' guardians don't have a blanket objection to removing the kitties, although they argue it's smarter to leave them there. But they want it done right, and they don't trust reassurances that no cats will be killed.

"I'm still waiting" for the details on that plan, said Ron Mader, a school district employee who's been one of the many taking care of the cats.

The ones left are probably too wild to be house pets, he said, and "there really are no no-kill feral cat places."

A district spokesman said the specifics of the removal plan weren't available Monday afternoon, but reiterated that there are no plans to kill the cats. Kindred Hospital did not respond to a request for comment late Monday.

And in an e-mail to the animal welfare group Spay Our Strays, School Board president Mary Beth Scow wrote: "I want to assure you that we will not allow any of the cats to be killed."

Nor should they be moved, cat advocates say. The discussion is actually a national one. Las Vegas and other urban areas have staggering numbers of feral cats, and for a long time animal advocates have said the solution entails the kind of sustained effort shown for the school district cat cluster.

Rather than round up wild cats for euthanization, animal groups encourage what's known as "trap, neuter, return." Once the felines are returned, volunteers provide food and water, clean up after the cats and keep an eye out for new additions to the colony.

Supporters point to several advantages to this approach. Cat populations are stabilized and protected from disease, and the colony provides free, and chemical free, pest control.

It's also cost-effective, given that the work is done by volunteers and nonprofit groups.

Spay Our Strays' Shirley Braverman said that in the past 10 years, her group and others have immunized and sterilized more than 30,000 cats, and that 300 colonies are now being cared for across the area.

Karen Layne, executive director of the Las Vegas Valley Humane Society, said that it's shortsighted to think removing the colony will mean no more cats.

"They may get rid of those cats, but they're not going to get rid of cats," she said, estimating that there are probably around 500 wild cats living in the area around the school district building.

Kathy Schreur, another school district employee who cares for the cats, said the felines have been good for the area by keeping vermin out of the drainage pipes.

"There was a rat population and a pigeon population, and it was pretty bad," she said. "They took care of that."

Removing the cats would also create a "vacuum," she said.

"When you have a controlled population of cats like this one, they keep new cats from coming in," Schreur said. Without them, "other cats come in, they're not immunized, they are a health risk."

The concern is that the cats themselves are also a health risk, particularly their feces. Schreur and others dispute that, saying that the area is kept clean -- and that the real complaint is the cats' tendency to invade the school district's parking garage.

"It's really basically paw prints on BMWs that are upsetting people," she said.

"These cats are fat, happy, and they're not bothering anybody. Why are we bothering them?"

Contact reporter Alan Choate at achoate@reviewjournal.com or 702-229-6435.