Cats on Campus Making Fur Fly at Valley College

The rolling green lawns, shrubs and cubbyholes at Valley College have become a battlefield in a quiet little war over a growing colony of alley cats.

Complaining about fleas in buildings and ever-present cat droppings, college workers are fighting to rid the Van Nuys campus of about 50 felines.

An elderly couple, who have been feeding the cats each day for the last seven years, say they are heartbroken over the plight of their feline friends, many of which have been trapped by campus police and put to sleep at the city East Valley Animal Shelter.

The longstanding debate reached fever pitch in the last few weeks as flyers with apparent death threats against the cats were left beside food and water bowls that the couple fill each evening. One showed a cat hanging from a noose.

The culprit remains a mystery, and the matter has been turned over to campus police. Department Capt. J. J. Wolf attributes the flyers to “a prankster . . . someone with a weird sense of humor trying to upset people,” and said his officers are investigating.

Meanwhile, college President Mary Lee is proposing a series of “cat expos,” to find homes for the animals and discourage people from abandoning them on campus. That, she suspects, is how the problem got started in the first place.

The fairs, which could begin next semester, would bring together agencies that place animals, owners who want to get rid of them and people interested in adopting them. The college might be able to enlist the help of veterinarians who could neuter or spay the cats and administer shots at reduced prices, Lee said.

“We can’t keep the cats,” she said. “I’m an animal person, and that’s a hard line, but we can’t keep the cats.”

Their food, left in plastic bowls under trees or alongside buildings, brings flies; fleas are invading the instructional buildings, and cat droppings create a health hazard, she said.

The large feline population on the sprawling 106-acre campus is not new, although no one can say for sure how long the cats have been around.

“Forever” is how it seems to Mary Ann Breckell, vice president for administration, who arrived at the college in 1975. “They’ve been here as long as I’ve been here,” she said. “You just have animals when you have this much landscape. You can’t get away from it. There are times when we have to address the issue, and times when we don’t.”

Some students don’t understand what all the fuss is about.

Yes, there are lots of cats on campus, said Carlos Vasquez, a microbiology major. “But they really don’t do anything,” he said. “They stay away from people.”

Not Been ‘Socialized’

Indeed, the sound of footsteps is enough to send the cats darting into the bushes. Most are wild, have not been “socialized” by humans and might be inclined to bite or scratch, said Lt. Annetta Reeff of the East Valley shelter, whose jurisdiction includes Valley College.

“They’re so afraid,” Reeff said.

Small wonder, said the elderly couple, who fear their charitable mission to care for the cats would be jeopardized if they revealed their names. The animals, they said, are wary of traps--and rightly so.

“We had beautiful kittens here,” said the man, nicknamed Goldie, as he pointed to a bushy shrub. “They used to run up to me, run under my legs. Now they’re all gone. That killed me.”

Last year, campus police borrowed a wire box trap from the animal shelter, Reeff said. When cats apply pressure to a plate of food that is set inside, the trapdoor slides shut.

In recent months during “breeding season,” college police have trapped and transported between three and five cats to the shelter each week, Reeff said. Wolf put the total number at 24, trapped during an eight-week period ending in July.

The cats were observed for seven days. Those deemed “suitable pets” were put up for adoption. The rest--Reeff said the majority--were given a painless but lethal injection of sodium phenobarbital.

Undaunted, Goldie and his wife, both in their 70s, continue their treks to the campus seven days a week, rain or shine.

Eyes shaded by a red baseball hat, his right knee wrapped in an elastic bandage, Goldie pulls a luggage cart filled with food and water over a route that has grown over the years to include 24 stops.

Setting Out Food

“Come on, honey,” he called one recent afternoon to a short-haired gray cat that watched him fill a bowl with food.

“Look,” he said moments later, “there’s one sitting on top of the roof waiting for me.” As he approached, the cat, sleek and black, jumped from the roof of the snack bar and met him at a feeding dish beside the building.

The cats have other benefactors as well. “This isn’t mine,” Goldie said, peering at a pink plastic bowl brimming with cat food.

“I’m always glad when someone else feeds too,” he said.

The gardeners and custodians said they feel for the cats and would never do anything to harm them. They credit the animals with keeping the rodent population under control. But, they said, it is their duty to keep the campus well-manicured, and bowls filled with cat food--particularly old food covered with ants--don’t do much for the landscaping.

On occasion, the workers admitted, they have thrown away the food.

“In a lot of ways, I don’t blame them,” Goldie said of the campus staff. “They’ve got their job to do.” But, Goldie said, the workers are under the mistaken impression that if he doesn’t feed the cats, they’ll go away.

“And they won’t,” he said. “This is their territory.”