Dozens of cats raced out their cages in a scene reminiscent of the Spanish Running of the Bulls on April 3, having just been treated by a Trap, Neuter, Release (TNR) program.
These were no ordinary house cats, but the 59 feral cats that live on Mercer’s campus.
TNR is a process where cats are captured, sterilized, vaccinated and then released back into the wild.
On an American Society of Prevention and Cruelty to Animals (APSCA) web page entitled “A Closer Look at Community Cats,” it states, “By stabilizing the population, cats will naturally have more space, shelter and food and fewer risks of disease. After being spayed or neutered, cats living in colonies tend to gain weight and live healthier lives.”
Despite the rain, Jacqueline Spadaccini looked on proudly at what she had helped accomplish. “It really feels good to let them go,” she said.
Spadaccini is one of a number that has expressed interest in aiding the feral cats. A number of concerned Mercer staff members help too.
Ronald Rabideau, Mercer’s Greenhouse Manager, has also been caring for the feral cats, for example.
He says, “I like cats, and they’re nice to have around here because mice and … things are a big pest for horticulture.” He continued, “They do a pretty good job I think of keeping the neighborhood population under control.”
However, cats and mice aren’t the only wildlife around. Locals have observed a number of coyotes and foxes eating the cats.
Rabideau mentioned his own struggle with losing cats. “I’ve had kittens die out here too, I tried helping them as best I could, but only so much I could do,” he said.
Rabideau also says that a number of cats set up house in one of the abandoned greenhouses. With help it was converted into a place for a few cats to stay.
He added, “Occasionally there’d be a litter that would pop up and if I could catch them early enough I’d try to adopt them out, find some good homes for them.”
Most he was able to find homes for through a student of his that works at a veterinary clinic, he says. Last year he was able to find homes for nine kittens.
But he wasn’t satisfied. He says, “To address the situation long term I felt that somebody needed to come in and trap and neuter the cats so they would put an end to the kitten production problem. So I reached out to a few different organizations in the area.”
Rabideau continued, “So turns out that one of the people that I had reached out to … reached out to someone else, that’s Jacqueline Spadaccini, and Jacqueline came here and met with me … took it upon herself to do a lot more research and she actually found funding.”
He added, “Jacqueline did most of the work, I just had a foothold here to…I put her in touch with Bryon Marshall I think.”
Spadaccini says the TNR project had been in the making since last November.
She says she became encouraged to start a TNR program on Mercer’s campus when she was walking through Mercer County Park, adjacent to the college grounds. She noticed that the cats had begun to encroach on the park. “They were infringing on the community,” she says.
After reaching out to Mercer several times in the past efforts failed due to a lack of money.
Three thousand one hundred dollars would be needed to fully treat all the cats. Spadaccini says that she was able to raise half of that from the college, the Student Government Association (SGA) and from the Animal Protection League of New Jersey.
But the other half remained, and to raise it Spadaccini created a GoFundMe with the help of Kate Featherstone from the Feral Friends Network of Alley Cat Allies. She advertised it by posting flyers around the community, including many on Mercer’s campus.
The GoFundMe was able to raise 1,700 out of its 1,600 dollar goal, according to Spadaccini. “It really worked out perfectly,” she added.
She contacted Forgotten Cats of Delaware, who she hired to help.
They sent a woman who asked only to be called Michele the Cat Trapper, who came to work with Spadaccini and together with the help of the college community they captured 62 cats, including a mother and her two kittens.
The two kittens will be able to be adopted out once they stop nursing, at which point the mother will be neutered and returned to Mercer.
The TNR has already shown results. Rabideau says “[The report] said there were 71 unborn kittens that were prevented.”
But even though the TNR is done, there is still work to do. Spadaccini says, “A TNR project only takes place and is successful when there is a caretaker and this should be more than only one person, especially for the number of felines [that Mercer has].”
Michele added, “I was suggesting that they get some kind of a club or an organization to monitor them and to take responsibility for them.”
There have been concerns that feeding the cats may have increased their population and made them a problem, but Michele denied that. When asked she said that if they weren’t being fed they would just be eating the birds and wildlife instead, harming the local ecosystem.
Jennifer Eng, the Student Government Association President says, “The SGA is discussing what options we have to help the cats.”
She added that if any students want to create a club or organization to help the cats that would be their right, and they would receive the support of the SGA.
