Hospital Mulls New Plan for Feral Cats

Bowing to pressure from cat lovers, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center executives have agreed to a temporary ban on the roundup, removal and possible killing of feral cats as they consider other ways to control the felines, officials said Wednesday.

The moratorium has raised the cat advocates’ hopes that medical center executives will formally adopt a trap, sterilize and return approach to reduce the number of feral cats roaming the Torrance campus.

“I am really happy that they are willing to sit down and discuss it,” said Jeanne Young, whose efforts began more than a decade ago when she rescued a skinny, wounded and pregnant tortoiseshell cat that she spotted on the medical center grounds.

Hospital administrators began an aggressive campaign two weeks ago to get rid of the 25 to 75 cats, whose feces, fleas and diseases posed a health risk to staff members and patients, they said.

“We still have our same goal to maintain a safe patient environment,” said John Wallace, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, which operates the facility. “We hope that we can work this out together without trapping and turning the animals over to animal control.”

Dismayed by the possibility that feral felines could be euthanized if deemed unadoptable, cat caregivers pushed for a meeting to discuss their preferred method of trap-sterilize-return.

Young pressed for a meeting with medical center executives to win a stay of execution for the cats. The nuclear medical technologist heads a six-member group called the Tortie Foundation, named for the now-deceased tortoiseshell cat.

Becky Robinson, national director of Alley Cat Allies, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit clearinghouse for information on feral and stray cats, wrote to medical center executives offering to assist in establishing a feral cat sterilization program.

“I wanted to go right to the top,” said Bill Dyer, regional director of In Defense of Animals, an international animal protection group with headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Persistent calls to Medical Director Gail Anderson’s office resulted in a meeting Friday with Anderson, assistant administrator Calvin Kwan, Dyer, Young and Jim Archer, science officer for a Torrance animal shelter and an expert in vector-borne diseases.On Monday, Anderson agreed to a moratorium on the feral cats’ removal from campus.

“I think they realize that the trap-neuter-return is the only method that is practical and realistic,” Dyer said. “Death to the cats is not a solution to the problem.”

The moratorium will remain in place as medical center executives review a trap-sterilize-return program, as well as plans for flea, feces and feeding control, Wallace said.