ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 9, 1996 TAG: 9606100025
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRISTINA NUCKOLS STAFF WRITER
WHETHER TWO WOMEN who feed the feline colonies are a solution or part of the problem depends on whom you ask.
A gray tabby and a black cat crouch in the dusk behind a restaurant on Williamson Road as a car pulls into the parking lot.
They wait as a woman gets out, pops the trunk and pulls out a bag of dry cat food. She pours a bowlful of nuggets and retreats. The tabby skitters in to feed, but its companion remains crouched, its hair bristling in a ridge along its spine. A dry heave sends a silent spasm through its body as a couple scream obscenities at each other from a car parked nearby.
"See how sick that one is?" Brenda Humphreys whispers. "That just breaks my heart."
Two years ago, Humphreys was eating at the restaurant when she noticed cats hanging around a trash bin. She began feeding them and soon bumped into Charlotte Williamson, who was doing the same thing. Now they take turns, but both have other colonies of feral cats elsewhere in Roanoke County and the city, so the costs continue to mount.
Humphreys buys at least one 20-pound bag of food every week. She said her friend works a second job "to support her cat habit."
"It's kind of backfired on us," Humphreys said, explaining that more and more cats are dumped in the spot, apparently because it's clear someone is caring for them.
At first, the two women thought they'd solve the problem with what they called the Great Cat Roundup. They set traps and captured a half-dozen cats, paying to have them neutered and inoculated against rabies. They found homes for four, but released the other two because they were too wild.
The colony has dwindled in recent weeks because Roanoke County animal control officials are trapping in the area, but a month ago, Humphreys estimated there were more than 20. She blames their propagation on the lack of a low-cost spaying and neutering clinics in the region. Roanoke-area veterinarians, she said, charge higher prices than their counterparts in places like Botetourt and Bedford counties.
But residents living in the area where the cat colony has settled blame the two women for the problem.
"I know they mean well, but they're hurting not only the cats, they're hurting the people in the community, too," said a nearby resident who asked that her name not be used.
After watching the colony of cats grow for the past three years, the woman has called Roanoke County's animal control division and set two traps in the area. She's caught 20 cats in the past three weeks - most, but not all, of the colony. One was missing a leg, a sign that someone else in the neighborhood is using illegal steel traps. The woman doesn't want to see the animals hurt, but she also wants them off her property.
"They come up, they mess in your yard and they dig in all your mulch," she said. "It's very bothersome."
It's also dangerous, according to Robert Whitig, bureau chief for veterinary services with the state Department of Agriculture.
Whitig said cats were the third most common carriers of rabies last year. Although the 27 cases reported statewide in 1995 were far behind the 271 raccoons and 113 skunks, rabid cats still outnumbered dogs almost seven to one. Roanoke County had only one confirmed rabies case last year - a skunk.
Al Alexander, executive director of the Roanoke Valley SPCA, said trapping wild cats to neuter them is better than letting them reproduce, but he questioned the effectiveness of having them vaccinated and released.
"Who's going to take care of the rabies shot three years from now?" he asked. "I don't know the solution other than cat ordinances. It's a hard law to enforce like anything else. It at least gives me a chance to get more of them back to their owners."
Roanoke County's two-year-old cat ordinance does not prohibit the animals from running at large, but it does say the cats can't create a nuisance.
"Now, nuisance is kind of a vague term, so if you call, you're probably going to get a trap," said animal control officer Riley Meador. The person requesting the trap is responsible for checking it daily and calling county officials when a cat is captured.
The practice of feeding feral cats also runs afoul of the cat ordinance, which says a person may own no more than six cats.
"By definition, if you're taking care of the cat, it's yours," said Lt. Gary Roche of the Roanoke County Police Department.
Humphreys doesn't believe she's breaking the ordinance. Even if she is, she says she can't stop now. She still occasionally runs classified ads to find someone to adopt the tamer cats, but she's afraid. People asking for white cats could be Satan worshipers looking for their next sacrifice. People wanting kittens may be feeding them to a boa constrictor. Everyone else is a potential pit bull owner.
After two years, she's frustrated and disillusioned.
"I don't think it's made much difference one way or the other," she said. "It makes me feel good to do it, so I'm just going to do it."
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON/Staff 1. Brenda Humphreys feeds theby CNBelusive wild cats behind Hardee's at 7404 Williamson Road. She takes
care of several colonies of felines throughout the area. Color.
2. One of the feral cats investigates Brenda Humphreys' recently
delivered food. Color.3. Graphic KITTY MAINTENACE Veterinarians'
charges for spaying and vaccinations. KEYWORDS: MGR