16 Junk-food Addicted Raccoons Are Relocated

At first glance the headline,“16 junk-food addicted raccoons are relocated,” seems humorous. But in actuality, there’s nothing funny about this recent case in which reckless community cat caregivers put wild animals’ lives in danger. We’re just so incredibly grateful that the animal control officers in charge decided in this instance to relocate the raccoons rather than kill them, but this still should never have happened.

In Defense of Animals is a vocal proponent of community cats and TNR (trap-neuter-return). We also advocate on behalf of caregivers for colonies of community cats, but we can't emphasize enough that caregivers must be responsible so as not to put their colony in jeopardy, nor put wild animals at risk of being relocated, or even worse, killed.

Community cats and other animals can peacefully coexist, but it is the responsibility of cat caregivers to adhere to basic standards of care, and our responsibility to be good neighbors.

Here are a few basic recommendations for feeding community cats:

-Feed the cats first thing in the morning every day. The cats will get on a schedule of when food is available and gather to eat at that time.
-Do not feed at night. Nocturnal animals, like raccoons, are up moving around at night looking for food and will be drawn to cat food. If you avoid feeding at night, it will put the cats at less risk of encountering raccoons or other nocturnal animals and help keep animals other than cats out of the area.
-Feed for the number of cats you have - don’t overfeed. Every bag of cat food has a chart which will outline how much food to feed per cat per day. Feed based on this chart to prevent overfeeding the cats.
-Along with not overfeeding, you should pull up all leftover food at dusk to prevent drawing in nocturnal animals.

Have questions about community cats? We can help. Please email cats@idausa.org for assistance.