Question: A lady down the block used to feed feral cats and I believe she had at least some of them fixed, although I am not certain about that. She died last year and now the cats have dispersed through the neighborhood and some are reproducing. A mother cat and three kittens are frequently in my yard, although I do not feed them. My question: Can kittens be spayed/neutered? How old do they have to be? I would like to get this done before the three kittens start having kittens of their own.
Answer: “Yes, we can sterilize them at no charge as long as they are at least 2 pounds, which is roughly 8 weeks old. (This reader and others) can register for one of our clinics at hicatfriends.org and borrow traps from us. Kittens can get pregnant as early as 4 months old, so the sooner they fix the kittens, the better,” said Jennifer Kishimori, president of CatFriends, a nonprofit organization that aims to humanely reduce the number of community (feral) cats on Oahu using the Trap, Neuter, Return and Manage system, which allows feral cats to continue their lives without adding to the population.
Sterilization clinics are scheduled next weekend in Kunia, for which you can register cats now, and there will be more in September and October; online registration for those will open later, according to the website.
Read the requirements at hicatfriends.org/spay-neuter-clinics before registering. Call or email CatFriends at 808-226-4561 or info@hicatfriends.org if you have questions not answered on the website, which is very thorough.
For help determining the age of kittens passing through your yard, see videos, photos and text at kittenlady.org/age, which describes kittens from birth to 8 weeks old. At 8 weeks, most kittens are active and playful, eating independently and have their adult eye coloring, the website says, and are ready to be sterilized.
Left unsterilized, a female cat may give birth to 100 kittens over her lifetime, according to the Hawaiian Humane Society, which also offers free sterilization of free-roaming cats. Appointments are required and people must bring the cats in for surgery; the Humane Society doesn’t catch the cats. Read more at hawaiianhumane.org/spay-neuter-frc/.
Kokua Line hears from many readers who need help catching the cats and transporting them to sterilization clinics — these folks are not confident doing it themselves. Volunteers from CatFriends will help if 10 or more cats need trapping, according to the organization’s website. Fill out a request form at hicatfriends.org/mass-trapping, but be patient. CatFriends relies on volunteers and it might take one to six months to fulfill the request. “If you are able to trap and transport cats on your own, we strongly suggest you make appointments and borrow traps through our website to get cats fixed more immediately,” the form says.
CatFriends and the Humane Society emphasize that each free-roaming cat brought in for surgery must be transported in a humane trap; feral cats in makeshift carriers will not be accepted. The CatFriends’ website has visual examples of acceptable humane traps and unacceptable carriers.
You don’t have to be a cat colony caregiver to seek assistance with mass trapping, but after sterilization the feral cats will be returned to where they were trapped — that’s how Trap, Neuter, Return and Manage operates, whether the cats are sterilized by CatFriends, the Humane Society or some other veterinarian or nonprofit group that supports the strategy. This dismays some readers, but if they do nothing the feral cats will still be in their neighborhoods, and will proliferate.
To answer another reader’s question, yes, Trap, Neuter, Return and Manage is city policy, which you can read about at www8.honolulu.gov/csd/free-roaming-cat-management/. Residents wanting the city to adapt the approach, such as by hiring a contractor to trap and transport stray cats for sterilization, as some readers have suggested, might consider engaging with their neighborhood boards, City Council representatives and the Honolulu mayor’s office to promote that idea.
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
