McKenzie working to end Feral cat overpopulation

McKENZIE, Tenn — The city of McKenzie is fighting to “purr-ge” its streets of a growing problem.

“The feral cat problem has exploded last year and this year,” McKenzie’s Mayor Jill Holland told WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News, Tuesday. “We’re really not sure why.”

“In the city limits of McKenzie, we’re easily well into the hundreds, there could very well be a thousand feral cats,” board members for the Carroll County Humane Society, Dr. Sarah Kidd explained.

Members of the Carroll County Humane Society have started a new ‘catch, fix and release’ program to begin to ‘claw away’ at the feral cat population.

“The only statistically proven way to reduce the feral population is to trap them, spay or neuter them and put them right back out where they were,” Dr. Kidd said. “They will kind of defend their territory, but altering them and having the spayed or neutered will prevent the overpopulation.”

So through the use of simple harmless traps, officials have hope they can fix the ‘feline factor’ in their city.

“It’s certainly not a real healthy situation and it’s something that we’re really working to be proactive and try to arrest that problem,” Mayor Holland said.

The humane society tries to set their traps once every two weeks, and believes it could take several years for there to be a real impact on the feral cat population.

“It’s a daunting challenge and we’re really trying to at least start the process of reducing those numbers, but its not gonna be quick,” Dr. Kidd said.

Officials say the humane society and all its programs function completely off of donations from the public.

To find out how you can help, click here.