Oxford has a stray cat problem: Here’s how local residents, vets are helping

This was the community’s fifth coordinated effort at catching and sterilizing stray cats. While four of the cats were able to be released and another two were rehomed, 14 still need regular medical care before they’ll be ready to either return to the outdoors or find a new home.

Angela DelVecchio, an Oxford resident for 18 years, has been helping stray cats for a long time, but this was her first time joining Raghu and others for the collective effort. Now, those 14 cats that need medical care are living in her barn. All 20 f the cats the group caught came from around the Parkview Arms Apartments near Kramer Elementary School, she said, but she said it’s only a start.

“Within a minute of putting the first trap down, they were snapping ... We took 20 out, and I would conservatively say that there’s probably 50 more at least, and who knows how many of them are kittens,” DelVecchio said.

The Parkview Arms cat colony is just one of several groups of cats in the area. Raghu said outdoor cats can negatively impact local ecosystems and spread diseases like toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection, to humans. While sterilizing feral cats by preventing breeding and shrinking the feral cat population over time, she said the overall solution requires people to look at cats differently than they do now.

“We’re not going to spay and neuter our way out of this; this is a policy decision,” Raghu said. “We need to figure out, do we treat cats like dogs? I would argue that we probably should if we want to get a handle on it. Cats need to be registered when they have owners, they need to be spayed and neutered if they’re gonna go outside.”

Businesses are getting involved in helping, too. Kim Peterka owns Cjs, a bar uptown. Each month, she holds fundraisers to benefit the Oxford Veterinary Clinic in conjunction with Miami University students in the pre-veterinary club, donating the money made from specific drinks over a weekend. In addition to fundraising, Peterka said educating Miami University students and residents on the importance of microchipping and collaring cats could help reduce the stray cat population over time.

“Even if they don’t have them spayed, neutered, at least we can get them back to their owners,” Peterka said. “That that is hands down what my generalized hope would be, but also to humanize that they are pets. They’re not rats. They’re not raccoons. They’re not wild animals.”

The effort last weekend fits into a broader strategy of cat population management called trap-neuter-return (TNR). According to Alley Cat Allies, a nonprofit organization, TNR is a humane solution to reduce outdoor cat populations without relying on finding a home for every cat that’s caught. Instead, spayed and neutered strays are earmarked and returned to their original colony, where they can no longer breed and add to the population.

Still, it takes time and money to pull off. Kate Carlier Currie has been helping with local efforts at controlling the cat population. Beyond the cost of spaying and neutering the cats, they also need to pay for medicine, food, paper towels and more. While they’ve relied on donations up until now, Carlier Currie said they’re starting to look into grant funding to keep the program going.

“The spay and neuter costs are what we’re hoping to cover with grant funds,” Carlier Currie said. “I feel like if we made a concerted effort over the next couple of years of trapping, spay-neutering, and releasing these cats, we can really hopefully get a grip on the situation.”

Beyond securing more definite funding, Carlier Currie and others hope to scale up their efforts and more regularly target specific at colonies in Oxford. They already partner with Miami University’s pre-veterinary club, and DelVecchio said she hopes to partner with other vets in the area to lessen the load on the Oxford Veterinary Hospital.

Oxford Veterinary also accepts donations to its feral cat fund to support these efforts. People interested in making a donation can call the office at 513-523-3234 or email info@oxvet.com.