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it seems that I have seen more feral cats on one of our leases over the last few years here in GA. People just dump them out when they don't want them anymore. I am not sure they hurt anything, wondering if the stagnant economy and the cost of keeping a pet has caused this trend to increase. Does anyone else notice a trend towards an increase in the number of feral cats?

A little money poured back into the stagnant economy for a box of .22 LR hollowpoints and you are on your way to a solution for both problems...

Ingwe

I thought you might be able to trap them with a Havahart trap, rehabilitate them, get their shots, and give them away at the Petsmart on "Cat Days".

Cats will breed as bad as pigs. It only takes a couple to get dumped off for a huge population to take root on your lease. Pick up your 22 and have some preseason shot placement practice.

Sorry Double Tap

Think again..

Shoot em all.

If you like small game hunting in the slightest.

laffin...

Nothing like smackin' a cat with a 240gr XTP out of a 444 at around 2400fps, that's the only shot they need.

Yeah, you could do that I guess but the first problem you got is getting a ten pound, ape schitz crazy cat OUT of a havahart trap.

BCR

in my area, the coyotes keep the cats thinned out. it's more of a problem trying to keep a few around the outbuildings for rodent control than having too many.

Believe it or not, NH has 18 miles of coastline and as a result a lot of transient summer residents who bring or get gets and leave them at the beach when they go back home. The feral cat population is mad! Not to mention the cities. I have 2 myself. Not a cat guy EVER, but they are pretty cool. Self sufficient little bastards! Sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do...they are resilient and will adapt nicely back to the wild as they hunt instinctively. If you feel like it is your place to eradicate the feral cat issue in your neck of the woods, who am I to say you shouldn't...just do it cleanly...1S1K!

This is what my mom does with obvious tame pet dropoffs. I bet she's taken close to 50 cats to the vet to get spayed or neutered.

Our main farm(house) is only a couple miles from town and so of course every dumbass from town drops off their cat. There's probably a dozen cats outside the porch waiting to get fed right now.
I was up in the fields a couple months ago and I watch this dirty old bitch drive up the county road, get out and put something in the ditch. She leaves so on my way out I stop and look to see what the hell she left. A damn cat. Even though I'm not a big fan of cats I picked it up and took it home, poor bastid would have starved to death or been coyote/fox bait in a few days. Mom takes it to the vet the next week, they did a cat abortion/spay job and we are now blessed with the whineyest(french word) cat you have ever seen.

The key to keeping cats close to the buildings is feeding them everyday, let 'em get too hungry and they'll stray down into the riverbottom. Of course then the coons and coyotes get after 'em.

I'm no cat expert but I imagine they are hard on the pheasant chicks and rabbits.

And then there's the bucknasty Tomcat. Over the years my mom has ordered several hits. I've got two this year with one of my 300WSM's.
First one was a head shot. No trophy of the second, he was a little tore up.

Sam, i bet you could sell that photo to Scenarshooter so he could put it on his web sight...

Feral cats are natural born killers. They raise hell with small game populations and song birds.

Feral cats are hard (read damn near impossible) to rehab. And dropped off cats are much more adaptable that their canine counterpart. I like cats, dogs, and kids. As long as they are well trained and know their place.
Feral cats do a lot of damage to small game.
I watched one of my barn cats chase a squirrel up a tree AND CATCH IT. This was a tame, well fed cat. The same cat helped keep my barn and chicken house rodent free and would not bother baby chicks.

I shoot every one I see. It's a real problem.

T Lee close your eyes. In my little corner of the rural world, a cat that is over 1/2mi from a farm house is target practice for me and most all of my friends. I'm sorry, but I grew up with quail and cottontails on every rural road. They are not there now.

Feral cats, bobcats, coyotes, a puma, or wolves if we get them. I will not discriminate.

I do not hate cats. I grew up on a farm that always had cats with names. We had house cats for years in town. We do not have a cat now, just a Corgi dog.

any cat not in a yard is fiar game, we call them ditch cougars up here and shoot all we can. they are the number 1 killer of songbirds in the US, not to mention other small game, and they will kill just to kill. I've had cats over the years and as long as they stayed on the place they were safe, they range too far and they are fair game like any other. some may think its mean to shoot your own cat, but sometimes its the only way. there are enough cats out there that you can keep replacing them as necessary as they range off the place

"I am not sure they hurt anything"

Feral cats are hell on birds, especially quail.

Feral cats? Self-propelled ballistic gelatin, for the most part. If any happen to hang around my hunting camp, I let 'em be. Caught out in fields when I'm woodchuck hunting, far from any farm or abode...splat!

Once drilled a huge feral tom that had already killed two of my uncle's farm toms, at his place across the valley from where I thumped it with a 22-250. Stinkinest' cat I've ever smelt and the largest-framed cat yet encountered. Had that thing been a pet and overfed like most, would've topped 30lbs, easy.

When the 55gr Btip took him in the shoulders, looked like a field goal football launched from the toe of Lou Grozza.