Editor, OBSERVER:
Congratulations are in order to the Brocton community for considering a Trap-Neuter-Return program - but first we hope you'll give us the opportunity to correct some inaccurate statistics.
It is not true that a single cat can produce anything close to 720,000 kittens in her lifetime. Heavily flawed "research studies" that came up with wildly inflated numbers have been debunked. As the national experts on cats, we have always refuted this urban myth and were disheartened to see it attributed to us in your article.
But it is absolutely true that the program is the only effective and humane approach to feral cats for any community, which is why municipalities all over the country have adopted the program after decades of the failure of "catch-and-kill," which is not only cruel but an enormous waste of taxpayer dollars.
The Trap-Neuter-Return works. It stabilizes the population - no new kittens - and makes the cats better and healthier neighbors by ending behaviors associated with mating cats (i.e., yowling, roaming, and fighting).
We hope your readers will visit www.alleycat.org for more information.
BECKY ROBINSON,
co-founder and president,
Alley Cat Allies
Bethesda, Md.
