Question: I agree wholeheartedly with the reader who said feral cats cause more trouble than feral chickens. Our neighbor feeds these cats, litter after litter after litter. They defecate in our yard, no matter what we do. My kids have not been able to play in our yard for the past three years.

Answer: If the free- roaming cats your neighbor attracts with food are reproducing, your neighbor is not following the city’s “Trap-Neuter- Return-Manage” strategy, under which cat colony caregivers and volunteers humanely trap stray cats; take them to be spayed or neutered, ear-notched, vaccinated and microchipped; and return them to where they were found, to live out their natural lives without reproducing. The city supports this approach by paying for the sterilizations through its Feline Fix program, which is administered by the Hawaiian Humane Society.

Kokua Line receives a steady stream of complaints about people who feed feral cats, but don’t get them fixed, resulting in a seemingly endless supply of homeless kittens — a female cat can go into heat as early as 4 months old, and, unspayed, give birth to more than 100 kittens during her reproductive years, the Humane Society says.

If you feel comfortable doing so, you may encourage your neighbor to utilize Feline Fix. The city has “doubled the funding for the Feline Fix program from $215,000 in fiscal year 2023 to $430,000 in fiscal year 2024, which will make a significant impact in reducing O‘ahu’s free-roaming cat populations,” Brandy Shimabukuro, spokesperson for the Hawaiian Humane Society, said in an email Friday.

This no-fee program is only for free-roaming cats, also known as feral, stray or community cats. For details, including contact information for participating clinics, which include the Humane Society and five other veterinary providers, see hawaiian humane.org/feline-fix/.

To answer other readers’ questions, no, the city does not have staff or vendors who trap free- roaming cats to be spayed or neutered, and neither does the Humane Society, Shimabukuro said. However, the nonprofit organization does rent humane traps ($25 per trap, plus a $75 refundable deposit) and tell people how to use them, she said.

“Alternatively, members of the public can coordinate with nonprofit groups like Hawaii CatFriends or Kat Charities” to trap and transport free- roaming cats for sterilization, she said. Contact information for these groups and others is listed at hawaiianhumane.org/ kittens/

That Oahu residents vexed by feral cats must catch the cats themselves, or find a colony caregiver or nonprofit group willing to do it for them, is another source of complaints to Kokua Line. Plus, most people we hear from want the cats moved permanently. That’s not how TNRM operates — fixed cats are returned to where they were found, to be fed by colony caregivers.

Readers also ask how many free-roaming cats there are on Oahu, and whether the population is rising, stable or declining. Some say a tracking census is needed to verify whether the city’s TNRM strategy is working. “There is no verifiable source (for Oahu’s free- roaming cat population) at this time. We understand that this data would be helpful and are looking at ways to support that quantitative data,” Shimabukuro said.

She described TNRM as “the most effective and compassionate tool in our toolbox. We acknowledge that managing free-roaming cats on O‘ahu is a complex challenge, which is why we support a targeted, long-term TNRM program consistent with our mission.”

The city says it is “moving aggressively” to keep Oahu’s stray cat population in check. For more information, see www8.honolulu.gov/csd/free-roaming-cat- management/.

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.