I've been a Columbus resident for 20 years, but recently bought a home in Victorian Village. I have been very surprised by the seemingly out of control stray cat population in the area. I have personally seen at least a dozen stray cats on my street and have found at least 5 different cats hanging out on my back porch property (in the neighborhood in total I have seen countless stray cats). I was shocked to find out that the city offers absolutely no services to deal with stray cats (probably the real root of the issue here). This seems extremely short sighted as feral cats can become a public nuisance and destroy property as well as be carriers for disease. I am always careful that any food is stored securely in the garbage collection can and I don't feed any of these cats myself (although I suspect some people in the neighborhood do). The two solutions that have been offered to me so far:
1. Just put up with it, hey everyone loves hordes of feral cats on their property.
2. programs to cage the cats and neuter them, then return them to the neighborhood do exist from non governmental groups (often with some kind of fee though).
Anybody else have experience with this problem? Any resources that have worked for you? I could pursue option #2 and after maybe 10 years and hundreds of dollars the cat population will be decreased, I was hoping for something a little more immediate and inexpensive though. I will head all of you off at the pass who will suggest killing or poisoning the cats, this is immoral as well as extremely illegal (I am not crazed and not willing to end up in court ala Michael Vick). Thanks for your suggestions.





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