cat - Cats at Work

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Just to fill you in on the Feral Cats At Work issue, I work at a steel mill.
The steel mill is bigger than 3 suburbs (feel free to look up a map of
Wollongong, you'll see the steelworks and associated services just to the
south of the town). There are *always* feral cats around here, they're
endemic. You can trap them all you like, and you'll still have a cat
population here. Most of the time you dont' see them, but at the moment -
only within the last week - have I seen kittens. Kittens are stupid (coz
they're kittens) and haven't learnt to avoid humans at all costs. This is
how I got IBKFergus - she was a lone kitten and chose having some chicken
over running away from the human. The adult cats are smarter than that, and
you only see them as a flash out of hte corner of your eye. The adult cats
will never be tamable, and probably not trappable (they are *smart*), but
the kittens have some hope. When you see kittens, it means that population
has gotten too big, and some are starting to come out of their hiding places
into human sight. Thats the time to call out the animal services people.
Otherwise the animal services people would be here all the time, and not
attending other places that do have cats that are trappable and want a human
home.

So, I have started the chain of events that may get the AWL lady out here
before the kittens grow up and have more kittens. Its a slow process cutting
through the red tape this place has (its like a government department) and
the management can always say "no" as AWL hasn't gone through the
mindnumbingly boring 'induction' course (2 days worth, at that) that allows
her on site without constant supervision from a member of staff. But at
least its a start.

Yowie

Good luck with the AW people. My husband works at the state prison and
they have a large feral colony which has happily been tended by some
trap neuter & release prison staff. It used to be that the corrections
officers (my husband is a medical provider) would shoot the cats, but
the cat people on staff raised a stink and started a TNR program. The
population has been stable for quite some time now, making all of we
peripheral cat slaves very happy :-)

I agree with you - I think it would be a great idea to socialize
kitties and bad guys at the same time :-) but I'm afraid that that
would be seen as entirely too kind to both criminals and cats.
I've seen a couple of shows about prison puppy programs and I think
they look terrific. There are some prisons that let cats wander around
inside the walls, but not many.
Barbara, slave to Lovey and brand new baby Yitzak.

"John F. Eldredge" wrote in message

I suspect that the dog/prisoner interaction is monitored enough to
make sure that no prisoner is training an attack dog. Also, the
authorities probably select the generally calmer breeds of dogs////

AFAIK, the shelters in the area identify last chance problem dogs, and
send them to prison so that inmates can work on their training etc as
service dogs & family pets. There's a great series on animal planet
called "Cell Dogs" or Prison Dogs or something. The inmates are very
carefully screened, and it's almost like a badge of honour to be allowed
to work in the program.

Helen M

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