County says Rancho Los Amigos cats must go

The colony of cats -- some feral, some friendly strays -- wandering the grounds near the old buildings on the campus of the Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center have stoked controversy for months. The cats have devoted caretakers -- they provide the food the felines above were snacking on in March -- and they have detractors, who said the cats were using the sand box of a nearby child-care center as a litter box and posing other health problems.

Los Angeles County, which owns the property, plans to raze the old buildings to make way for a high-tech data center. Early this year, county officials agreed to let a Downey nonprofit, Fail-Safe 4 Felines, embark on an ambitious project to trap and neuter the 150 or so cats and relocate them.

But, now, the county has decided the cats must go as soon as possible. For one thing, the trapping, neutering, and releasing approach didn't appear to be succeeding. The feline population count has gone up to 200, according to county officials. And in August, said county public health spokeswoman Sarah Kissell, "we found evidence of five new litters." Additionally, public health inspectors found fleas, flies and feces -- all associated with the cats -- near several buildings, including a children's day care center.

In a letter to the county, a public health official said feral cats had been associated with organisms that cause human diseases such as rabies and typhus.

Rabies?

"It's rare, but it has occurred," said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of the L.A. County Department of Public Health. Fielding said the decision to tell the county to remove the cats immediately was seriously considered.

"We're all animal lovers," he said. "These aren't steps that are taken lightly."

"This is kids over cats, plain and simple," said Supervisor Don Knabe -- whose district includes the Rancho Los Amigos property -- in a statement.  He has urged members of the public who want to help the cats to e-mail Animal Care and Control at animalinfo@animalcare.lacounty.gov.

L.A. County's Department of Animal Care and Control will trap the cats and move them to its animal shelter in Downey. The shelter will assess the cats to see which can be adopted out. Feral cats -- which are extraordinarily difficult to incorporate into homes -- sometimes can be placed in barns and equestrian centers that have rat problems. (Ferals are great at making rats vanish from the premises.)

"We notified several of the feline groups about what we were doing and asked them to help us rather than fight us on this," said David Sommers, a spokesman for Knabe's office.

County Animal Care and Control officials said, in an Oct. 22 letter to the director of Fail-Safe 4 Felines,  that the group had failed to meet its commitment to find homes for the cats. One of the affectionate ones is pictured right.

The group's director and founder, Sheranne Jaeger, told the Downey Patriot that her group had found homes for 30 of the cats. But the arrival of kitten season along with the irresponsible dumping of house cats kept the numbers from shrinking permanently, she contends. Jaeger told the Patriot, "if we hadn't been there, there would be thousands of cats. It takes everybody to solve this and euthanasia isn't the answer."

-- Carla Hall

Photos: Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Annie LaFleur]

I do not understand why humans keep slapping God in the face! Feral cats are part of the Creator's plan for handling rodent control in this city and all over the globe.
I would hasten the City "Fathers" to reconsider this foolish plan. The last time humans meddled in this fashion the Black Death spread across Europe and halved the population! Your exterminators and your poisons are not a substitute for God's Plan.Reconsider!!
REPENT!!! Before it is too late for the city I love!

[Jennifer]

LA County needs to let the rescue group do their work and assist them in any way they can. They have no right to take the feral cats to a shelter, because that is a death sentence. It's true that if not for the rescue group, there would be hundred more cats and kittens. How about offering free spay/neuter?

[TR & Abandon]

Doesn't anyone notice that the article said "friendly" as well as feral? Doesn't anyone have a problem with the fact that these friendly cats have been left there rather than taken out and gotten ready for adoption? Considering that there are friendly cats left there says that whoever is the "caregiver" is failing to do the job correctly. Another case of abandonment using the guise of TNR. And evidently TNR doesn't work there because the population has increased. If the job had been done right, the photographer would not have a picture of cats because you rarely see a truly feral cat within a tight urban setting. And doesn't anyone care about the children who may be allergic to cats or who can catch a disease from these cats? How can you write off the health of children so easily?

[Don't let this happen]

I agree, let Fail Safe do their job and let Fail Safe assess them, and do not let the ferals be taken to a shelter because that is a death sentence. These creatures are innocent, and deserve to live. It can take MONTHS to find a cat a home because it can take months for them to become socialized after being stray. Have a heart Animal Control and work TOGETHER with Fail Safe, and stop rushing this process for the sake of putting up buildings. Fail Safe Director is right, it takes EVERYONE helping to solve it. I think everyone should write to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger about it.

[Don't Let this happen]

Erect a temporary fence around the Daycare Center to keep the cats far away from the building, and let the cats all be found a place to be relocated to. It will take TIME. LA County, GIVE the time needed and help get them relocated. It is not the cats' fault they were left out there, for goodness sake. Strays become part feral and need TIME and I don't think that LA County is taking the time to assess whether a cat is really a stray who became part feral or is a true feral. True ferals are true ferals and cannot be put into shelters or adopted easily. And TNR does work. It is no one's fault that people keep abandoning pets and that more have come to join this colony, it is not "proof" that TNR does not work, all it means is more ppl abandoned more cats who happened to come along and find this colony.

[Sandra]

How I wished I had known this cat issue before enrolling my baby in that daycare center, and just the thought of the children; some crawling, outside where these cats roam.