Cat Action Trust 1977

When I joined Cat Action Trust 1977 seven years after the Trust's foundation, we formed the Central London Branch, yet there was still a huge mountain to climb: humane feral cat control through neutering was a fairly new idea. There were colonies of 20-30 cats everywhere in London - on waste lands, industrial estates, hospital grounds, train stations, in derelict houses and even in private gardens.

We had to work hard to convince people that our humane approach was more effective and longer lasting. One of the difficulties we had to overcome was the mistrust of people who had had experience with pest control firms and who feared we would have the cats destroyed. For that reason they usually did not ring us for help until the colony had exploded in numbers and most of the kittens were older and untameable. Proving our work and our good intentions through tireless trapping, neutering, taming and rehoming cats or returning them to site in our big city, we gradually won the argument even at big sites that regularly had their cats destroyed only to see a new colony taking their place. Most people now know what feral cats are and how fast they multiply, so now they ring us sooner - hopefully while the kittens are still tiny and easy to rehabilitate.

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