Hi! We Have Rats!

Yesterday, as I was headed home, I stopped by a McWendyKing and was idling in the drive-thru lane. I usually check for signs of cats. This particular restaurant was pretty bare of cat-habitat. However, it's obvious to me, and to every customer who drives by, that they have a rodent problem.

Now, most restaurants have to deal with rodents on some level. But I am constantly amazed at pest control companies who throw these bait boxes for poison right out where customers can see them. To the right was a thick holly bush where that bait station could have been placed along the wall, and no one would even know it was there.

When I first got involved with cats on the fast food strip, I was in the drive-thru and saw a big old cage trap sitting out in the hot sun in public view. You don't trap that way. You just don't. The shelter doing the trapping was affronted when their trap was constanted tripped and finally stolen. If I saw a cat bashing back and forth right out in the open in a trap in the sun, I'd be getting involved, too. I probably would place the cat in the shade and start making phone calls to find the trapper, but one can't blame a member of the general public for letting the cat out and thinking bad thoughts about the restaurant.

After I started trapping at that site (after asking the permission of the restaurant and the shelter) I met the person who was letting cats out. It was a staff member. Turns out, no one from management had bothered to tell the staff they were supposed to call the shelter when a cat was caught. The staff thought the shelter would be checking the trap. When no one called the shelter, and no one arrived to pick up the cat, this staff member felt bad and released the cats.

Can't hardly blame him. He was very helpful to me, and gave me descriptions of all the cats in the area. This was back in the days when the adult cats were being put down, and the kittens were being tamed and adopted. This gentleman accepted that the feral adults were being killed. What he objected to was them being left to sit out in the open, terrified, bashing back and forth.

In other words, everyone in this situation--the shelter, the restaurant management, and the staff member--agreed that the cats should be removed. But because of poor communication, the project was entirely unsuccessful.

When my wildlife control acquaintenances get to talking about cat trapping, they'll almost invariably assume that if cats are released from traps, it's being done by "animal rights activists and cat wackos." The heck it is. It's being done by average ordinary human beings who either misunderstand the situation, or recognize a poorly done job when they see it. Sure, activists may get involved in high-profile cases, and if you try to trap-and-kill cats who are actively being cared for, you are likely to get formal opposition. But in most cases, "opposition" comes from the average, caring, person who just happens to be walking by and sees a panicked animal in a trap in public view.

Even when traps are hidden, you need to keep in mind that critters make noise. I had traps set for kittens on a cold snowy night. The traps were behind bushes, and they were difficult to reach. However when I stepped out from my office to check the traps, they obviously had been entered, and whatever had been caught was released. There were kitten tracks and human tracks there. Someone obviously had heard the kittens mew, assumed the traps were "meant" for wildlife, and let the kittens go. Since then I have posted signs on the approaches to my traps, that kittens and cats are being rescued, with my cell phone number. I don't want people thinking cats are in trouble in my traps, when in fact releasing them will likely condemn them to death.

Whose fault was this? Not the students who released the kittens. Let's face it. They were motivated by (misplaced) concern for the kittens. They didn't know that those kittens would be tamed and placed in warm, safe homes. It was my fault, for failing to either monitor the traps constantly, or for failing to post signs and be accessible. Since I've begun placing signs on and before all of my traps, I've never had a cat released.

(Note: coyotes, dogs, and raccoons can't read signs. If you leave a trapped animal exposed to risk by other animals, it can be killed. I learned this when I put a pigeon in a trap in my old barn overnight, thinking the trap would keep it safe from marauding creatures. I was wrong. There was nothing left the next day but feathers.)

Sharing my stupidity so you don't need to make the same mistake.

When working with problem animals, communication is important. People who need information should be included, and people who don't (customers in the drive-thru) shouldn't have traps and bait stations in plain view screaming out "There's A Problem Here!"