Is it more humane to kill stray cats, or let them fend alone?

Lisa Grace Lednicer

THE AGING JEEP pulls into an alley of rowhouses near Gonzaga College High School that is littered with dirt-streaked plastic water bottles, abandoned yogurt containers and used condoms. Its around about 8:30 on a chilly January morning. Time to release the cats.

Laurice Ghougasian pulls up the trapdoors on two cages, and the animals meow loudly, leap outside, and race in the opposite direction of the food Ghougasian has put down left for them. She sighs. I spend all my money and time relocating cats, she says. Hey, sweeties I want you to run that way.

She hops back into the car, drives three blocks, then slides into a parking space next to an iron fence. Before she even opens the door, seven cats black, black and white, gray surround her. Ghougasian reaches into a shopping bag, pulls out a can of Friskies and plops it onto paper plates. A helicopter thrums overhead and a construction hammer plinks in the distance. Ghougasian, a petite woman with earrings and a black coat flecked with cat hair, seems right at home. After theyre neutered, theyre sometimes skittish, she explains. Eventually, they let me touch them.

This is the face of free-roaming cat management in Washington: After decades of euthanizing cats that were feral or otherwise unadoptable, the Washington Humane Society has embarked on an ambitious plan to end cat euthanasia in its two shelters. The group recently began releasing back into the community cats that arent necessarily feral but just prefer living outdoors. It even held a fundraiser in December in which architects were invited to design cat houses for outdoor cats to take shelter in.

That philosophy appalls other animal welfare organizations that believe cats belong indoors. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the animal rights group that opposes fishing and circuses, promotes veganism and generally believes that animals are not for humans to use, says euthanizing outdoor cats is more humane than releasing them back into the community, where theyre at risk of contracting illness, getting hit by cars and being attacked by larger animals.

They wont die comfortably in someones arms; they will die badly, says Ingrid Newkirk, PETAs president. Its no kindness; its because people feel uncomfortable with euthanasia. Thats understandable, but its no excuse.

The American Bird Conservancy, the Wildlife Society and several veterinarians who have studied outdoor cats make many of the same arguments although not every group advocates euthanasia. Free-roaming cats kill too many birds, they say. Trap, neuter and release programs havent proved effective at reducing cats numbers. Caregivers risk rabies and toxoplasmosis.

These cats are not wanted by society, says George Fenwick, president of the American Bird Conservancy. There are so many of them we cant even take care of them. The whole idea that we cant use population reduction and population management as a technique is antithetical to 100 years of wildlife management. Theres a misguided notion that euthanasia of cats is somehow immoral. Its not immoral its just a sad and necessary fact.

WHS responds that relying on volunteers to trap the cats, bring them to the groups monthly spay and neuter clinic, then release them vaccinated and unable to breed is a more effective and humane way to control the Districts free-roaming felines than killing them.

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Is it more humane to kill stray cats, or let them fend alone?