Photograph by Robert Scheer
Feral cats like this one feed from tins of food left by residents.
By Sarah Lombardo
After years of political cat-fighting between education-minded West Valley College officials and some of the school's cat-loving neighbors, plans to trap and remove feral felines on campus are purring right along.
But, to many school and city officials' surprise, the trapping isn't being done by the college directly. It's being done by the same people who have fought for the cats' right to be left alone.
"Our plan was to engage the services of a professional to carry that out," said Tom Green, West Valley's dean of budget and planning, "but apparently and unbeknownst to me, some arrangement has been made that the people who have been feeding the cats have taken it upon themselves to trap and remove the cats. And that's fine by me."
The arrangement was made with Ian Abell, West Valley-Mission College District director of facilities, and a group of residents known as "Friends of the Cats." According to West Valley College President Marchelle Fox, Abell is coordinating the effort to round up and find homes for the cats. A woman associated with Friends, who wishes to remain anonymous, is funding the effort.
"The college was going to pay for the disposition of the cats--the shots and health exams--and a donor came forward," Fox said.
Friends member Bill Watkins, who with his wife has been feeding the stray cats for about seven years, said the attempt to trap the cats themselves was a move on the part of the cat supporters to find homes for the cats and ensure they don't get euthanized.
"We don't want this to escalate into a personal crusade," Watkins said. "All we're trying to do is rescue the cats. If we can find homes for these cats, maybe that alleviates the whole problem."
The cats have been the subject of heated, and often emotional, debate for years, with school officials claiming the colonies of cats have killed off natural wildlife in the area and attacked students and faculty, and cat supporters maintaining the cats are only trying to survive after being dumped on the campus by thoughtless owners. It is against college regulations to feed the feral cats, but many neighbors have "sponsored" colonies and provide food daily to the cats, much to the dismay of school officials, who say the cats present a liability.
The cats' fate seemed sealed when the West Valley-Mission Board of Trustees on Oct. 3 unanimously approved construction of 1.2 acres of wetlands on the West Valley College campus. The wetlands, proposed by Saratoga to satisfy the city's responsibility to mitigate nearly half an acre of Quarry Creek wetlands destroyed in 1988, will expand the wetlands area already at the school.
As part of the project, West Valley wants to remove the cats from the entire campus to ensure the survival of natural wildlife.
"In terms of the fate of the cats, no one wants the cats euthanized. We just don't want the cats here," Green said. "It's not like we're kitty-haters."
Greig Rose, chairman of the college's biology department, said he feels the cats pose a huge risk to the success and educational value of the wetlands because they prey on birds and other small creatures.
"Our purpose at the college is to educate adults, and we use the outside campus in that education," Rose said. "We're trying to keep a slice of California in this 148 acres, both because we use it as a teaching lab and we think it is a resource for all Saratogans. We've been working to have this campus as an outdoor museum, if you will."
Saratoga Public Works Director Larry Perlin said he made an agreement with the college to assist officials in a program to remove the cats from the proposed wetlands area only. The school, Perlin said, then planned to expand that program and remove the cats from the entire campus to prevent remaining cats from simply moving into the new wetlands. But, the project had been put on hold until the spring, when conditions would be better to begin construction of the wetlands.
"The agreement would be that the cats would be taken to the Humane Society, and those deemed healthy and in good condition would be put up for adoption, and the others would be euthanized," Perlin said.
Perlin said he was happy to hear that the cat supporters had taken matters in to their own hands.
"I say more power to them," he said. "If they can catch [the cats] and find homes for them, that would be great. Not only would that insure they knew the disposition of the cats, it would save the city and the school the cost of hiring some one to provide that service."
Green said the college had planned to use contingency funds to pay for the cat-trapping throughout the rest of the campus, but had not yet worked out specifically how much would be needed. But, Green said they figured it would cost about $100 to $150 a day for each day it took to capture all 20 cats on the campus.
According to Watkins, he and the others, including West Valley-Mission College District Board of Trustees President Arne Lunde, have been trying to get the word out about the cats' plight to save them from a one-way trip to the Humane Society Santa Clara Valley.
"The Humane Society only keeps them three days," Watkins said. "That's a death sentence."
Dori Fontaine, education coordinator with the Humane Society, said that the shelter would do its best to find homes for as many cats as possible, but that truly feral cats would most likely be unfit for adoption.
"It's just like people who try to capture a mountain lion and tame it as a pet," she said.
Lunde said he has already arranged adoptions for about 10 of the cats once they are captured and given clean bills of health. The first cat captured was picked up and taken home by Lunde last week.
Lunde said he got involved in an issue whose time had come as a concerned member of the community.
"If people in the community get sick and tired of their cats, they drop them off at West Valley, and this cannot go on forever," he said.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, November 20, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved