ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 16, 1997 TAG: 9703170073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FAIRFAX
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dozens of cats are ``set free'' by students at the end of each semester at colleges across the nation.
Ginger was a pitiful creature when Joan Ziemba caught sight of her behind the college field house last month.
Bone-thin and ragged, the little cat had probably spent two months in the woods, Ziemba said. That was about how long it had been since the Christmas break began at George Mason University, where Ziemba works as an administrator.
Dozens of cats are ``set free'' at the end of each semester at the sprawling campus in the Washington suburbs. Some animals die, a lucky few find new owners.
The rest join proliferating colonies of semiwild cats that inhabit the woods around campus buildings.
``College campuses across the nation have this problem,'' said Ziemba, who with other cat lovers has formed a feeding and rescue program at George Mason.
``The kids think it would be a neat idea to have a pet during the year, and then there is nowhere for the pet to go when classes end,'' Ziemba said. "They think the cats will do fine outdoors.''
Alley cats are ubiquitous in big cities, and the neighborhood stray is a common sight elsewhere. But animal welfare workers say problems such as George Mason's can be easy to overlook.
``People probably are surprised to learn there are colonies of feral animals living in places like college campuses and summer resort communities,'' said Stephen Zawistowski, vice president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Feral animals are domesticated animals living in the wild. Estimates of the number of feral or stray cats nationally range as high as 60 million, but no one really knows the extent of the population, said Becky Robinson, director of a clearinghouse called Alley Cat Allies.
Feral cats are in danger from starvation, cold, disease, cars, other animals and one another. Left alone, cats become territorial and fight frequently.
Students or people who get jobs at summer resorts and leave their pets behind when it's time to go often have a misguided notion about cats' abilities to adapt to the wild, Zawistowski and others said.
``A lot of people don't see it as abandoning the animal. They think they're giving the cat its freedom,'' Ziemba said.
About 200 feral cats roam the 670-acre George Mason campus, Ziemba said. They eat handouts, rodents and garbage, she said.
Her group, the Mason Cat Coalition, traps the animals and has them spayed or neutered.
Friendly animals such as Ginger can be adopted. But cats born in the wild are usually too afraid of people to make good pets, Ziemba said. Animals that can't be tamed are released.
Ginger, now gaining weight and recovered from an eye infection, has found a comfortable home with another employee of the state-supported school with an enrollment of 24,000.
``She's a little skittish still,'' said new owner Laura Massie. ``I don't know what happened to her when she was in the wild, but she was traumatized.''
The Mason Cat Coalition was modeled on a program founded eight years ago at Stanford University. The Stanford Cat Network has helped reduce the campus feral cat population from about 500 to about 150, said founder Carole Hyde.
``It was formed in response to the university's desire to round up and exterminate these cats. Lots of students and faculty did not want that to happen,'' she said.
Since then, Hyde's group has helped set up cat management programs at a dozen or so other campuses nationwide. All the groups aim to reduce the population through sterilization and adoption, and improve the health of the inevitable remaining feral animals.
Long-term management is cheaper and more effective than killing unwanted animals, advocates say.
``What's happened at Stanford is proof of that. Killing animals just creates a vacuum effect for other animals to move in and begin the cycle again,'' Alley Cat Allies' Robinson said.
Education also is key to breaking the cycle of abandoned animals on campus, Ziemba said.
``It seems just so completely irresponsible to think of an animal as disposable, but of course people do think that way. We want to help students understand that cats are not disposable, and that setting an animal free is not doing anyone any favors,'' Ziemba said.
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS. Laura Massie poses with her cat,by CNBGinger, at her home in Centreville. She adopted the cat from the
Mason Cat Coalition at George Mason.