Outdoor cat project

The Furness region has multiple areas of land, such as farms, woodlands, allotments, and other rural sites, for outdoor cats to thrive and multiply. Outdoor cats consist of cats that are non-domesticated and live self-sufficiently or with little involvement from us humans. In most cases the cats that colonise these areas happily co-exist, keeping a balance to the environment through hunting and moving on to new pastures when necessary.

However, in some cases, outdoor cat colonies can over-breed, have severe inbreeding, spread harmful diseases that can be passed on to domestic pet cats and can cause issues to an environment if there are high numbers, but not enough food.

Our outdoor cats vary in their origins. They may have been previously owned and have strayed or been abandoned for a very long time, they may inhabit a large area, being intermittently fed by, but not interacting too much with humans. We have barn or farm cats, which are vital to farms to reduce vermin levels and again may have reduced human interaction, but could rely on those working the farm for food. And lastly we have our feral cats, these are cats with no human interaction, and cannot be handled or expected to be domesticated – very much considered wild animals.

Our Outdoor Cat Project is tackling individual cats, and small and large colonies in the Furness area. We currently care for 8 colonies with over 200 cats. This project centres around TNR (trap neuter release), each outdoor cat is caught using specialised traps, then taken to our partner vets who test for FIV - a deadly disease which we cannot vaccinate against, that causes illness and premature death, and is transmitted through fighting, biting, mating and birth. Those who are FIV negative are then neutered, given treatment for any ailments, flea and wormed, and then released back to the area they were trapped.

The aim of this project is to reduce the number of outdoor cats to prevent colonies becoming out of control by neutering, lowering the birth rate of the colonies, preventing inbreeding that causes kittens to be born disfigured or without fully functioning bodies (preventing painful deaths), and testing for FIV to reduce the number and risk of cats spreading the deadly disease.

This project will always be required in rural areas such as the Furness region, and we will continue to fundraise to tackle as many colonies as possible to reach our aims outlined above. If you would like to donate to the Outdoor Cat Project, or any of the Animal Welfare (Furness) projects, please visit our Donate page and help us to continue to do this valuable work.

If you are aware of, or care for an outdoor cat or colony and require our help, please get in touch so our team can organise to provide assistance through this project.