Keep the Cats at SMU - Save the Feral Cat Program at Southern Methodist University

AFCAT at Texas A&M has been at the forefront of demonstrating that trap, neuter, return is far more effective at controlling stray cat numbers than catch and kill. Is our neighboring University so ignorant as to scrap a well functioning TNR program on their campus over fleas? Any temperature over 90 is too hot to trap humanely, and I bet a peat control company does not post someone to monitor each trap.

This is outrageous!!

Unacceptable and inhumane of the SMU administration to proceed with this. The SMU student body will not tolerate this.

Leave these cats alone. They are a feral community and as such need to be protected. Some have been there for 10 years or more. Please do notice or hurt them. Thank you

Stop trapping feral cats.

Please keep your feral cat rodent patrol on duty. I'm sure some of these kitties help students deal with homesickness. I know when I was in college feral/stray cats helped me deal with the loneliness of being away from my family and pet cats.

This is a cruel and inhumane decision. Please allow the cats to be fed and given access to water until a better option can be found for the flea problem. trapping cats in these temperatures is likely to result in their death. As a parent of a current student, I find this practice repulsive and it does not make me proud to say my son attends school there if decisions like this continue to be made.

The way you are going about this is considered animal cruelty. You have fleas because it is hot and it is Texas. Jeez get the facts right and take care of your promises to these living beings.

This is totally unacceptable and an unnecessary way to handle the problem. Well maintained colonies are unlikely to be the source of a flea problem, however, the TNR program was not consulted or made aware of said problem. The needless removal/killing of the feral cats will create a new breeding ground/habitat for rats and other critters to move in without the cats to keep them in check. Which would you prefer to have living on campus?!

terrible

This is an outrage.

Please don't do this.

This is a bad decision and you should feel bad.

F SAM

I am a cat volunteer feeder and we have 2 stations outside our library on campus. We have never had fleas and the stations have been there a few years. I was putting food out only to find the next day the bowls taken. SMU decided just to take the food without even telling those of us in the program this is what they were doing. Now they are running around putting traps out in 104 degree temperature. This is like taking in a wild animal at a young age and feeding it and then just dumping it out into the wild to find food for itself. These cats are feral but they don't know how to fend for themselves at this point since they have always been fed. We have had a very rainy season last spring so perhaps there are more fleas than usual this year. I hope this makes the news and make SMU look bad. There is not excuse for this. President Turner, please help us. Thank you.

This is not a necessary tactic. There are better solutions if you open the topic for discussion.

Please keep the SMU Feral Cat Program.

The feral cat trap/neuter/return program is a wonderful idea that should not be done away with and these cats treated like trash.

Shameful, SMU. I'm an alumna & rethinking my annual $ gift.

Please use some common sense. It is way TOO hot to be trapping cats and leaving them in traps. This is inhumane.