here in the US a lot of effort is put into maintaining feral cat populations, as strange as it sounds. advocates of this idea usually promote "catch-neuter-release" programs, and claim such programs will eventually reduce feral cat populations humanely. the evolutionary biologist in me says that's really unlikely--it just selects for cats that avoid traps. you only need to miss one male to keep all the females pregnant, and only a few pregnant females to keep a steady supply of kittens. TNR is extremely popular with the public.
the only long-term published study of TNR programs that I've ever seen (http://www.abcbirds.org/cats/NFWF.pdf) suggests that they do not work. when people know you have a TNR program going, they dump more cats there. and you can never catch them all. I love cats and have kept them as pets for many year. but they never go outside my house. the raccoon trapping work I've done has resulted in lots of feral cat captures, and from I've seen, living as a feral cat is a pretty tough way to go. Dr. Russell Burke Department of Biology 114 Hofstra University Hempstead, NY 11549 voice: (516) 463-5521 fax: 516-463-5112 http://www.people.hofstra.edu/faculty/russell_l_burke/
