Cal State Long Beach administration finalized a feral cat management program that will regulate the cat population through a trap, neuter, release, adopt and management process on Friday.
The CSULB Campus Feral Cats Program and Procedures defines requirements for cat caretaking procedures for volunteers and provides a website describing the Campus Feral Cats Program.
The program mandates registered volunteers monitor the approximate 150 feral cats residing on campus.
Volunteers can register on the CSULB Feral Cat Registration Form and sign a general release of all claims with the CSULB Department of Safety and Risk Management.
“Our first and foremost priority is to have a healthy campus environment for our students, faculty and staff,” said Mary Stephens, CSULB vice president of administration and finance, in an e-mail. The program, Stephens said, is based on similar programs at universities such as UCLA and Stanford.
The final inundation of the program “is a humane approach to caring for the current population of feral cats and achieving the long-term objective of eventually eliminating this population,” Stephens said.
Kathleen McGuire, a sophomore liberal studies major and pro-tem of CSULB’s Beach Cats organization, which will replace the Campus Animal Assistance organization disagrees.
“It’s not going to really work out, or at least it’s not humane to only allow the cats to have food available to them 12 hours in the day,” McGuire said.
A previous proposal made by Campus Animal Assistance was partly incorporated into the program. Water access for the cats will be provided on a 24-hour basis and the feeding time will be from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., according to Stephens.
Other mandates of the program will follow the university’s original proposal.
The feeding stations in the program are being reduced from 15 locations to seven locations, in which the university will oversee the authorization and/or removal of each feeding station. Volunteers must maintain the cleanliness of the stations, and structures are prohibited at each station, unlike the small structures provided for the feral cats previously.
The university’s decision on this matter is because “we received advice that it was doubtful whether feral cats would make use of such shelters in any case,” Stephens said.
According to Stephens, the university will also aid volunteers and student organizations in trapping kittens and socialized adult cats for removal and adoption.
However, registered volunteers and campus organizations are responsible for the trap, spay and neuter part of the program on their own.
“All cats must be neutered [or] spayed and vaccinated and identified as such by the presence of a tipped ear,” the website states.
The reduction in the number of cats will be used to determine the affect of the management program, as well as a low to no visibility of feral cats and the feeding stations.
The university will also take note of any complaints from the campus community concerning the feral cats or “associated paraphernalia,” according to the website.
McGuire said to keep up with these policies “is not going to be an easy thing to do.”