There are lots of wild cats in St. Tammany Parish, and we aren’t talking about the mascots at St. Tammany Junior High.

There are thousands of feral or wild cats roaming the streets and woods in the parish. According to Wendy Guidry of the Feral Cat Consortium, these wild cats hang out behind restaurants, grocery stores and any place where there is food.

The Feral Cat Consortium has been operating in the parish since 2003, and they team up with the St. Tammany Humane Society and St. Tammany Animal Services in an effort to reduce the size of the feral cat population. For the past five years, the STHS has been trying to control the feral cat population with the Feral Cat Fix Project. STHS Executive Director Vaughn Maurice said that in five years, they have spayed or neutered 6,000 cats, but the feral cat population keeps growing.

“We have not seen a decline in the population in five years,” Maurice said. “It clearly is a big problem.”

Guidry and Maurice cannot give the exact number of feral cats wandering the parish, but they both agree, it tends to get out of hand.

Guidry said that good-intentioned people feed these cats, but don’t try and trap them to get them neutered or spayed. The result is colonies that grow to have between 20-30 cats. She said she herself goes out and visits 20 colonies and tries to keep them under control.

St. Tammany Animal Services Director Melissa Sullivan-Piwetz said the parish animal shelter receives many feral cats. Last year the shelter took in 2,685 cats, and half of those were feral. She said, it is hard to get adult feral cats adopted, but that feral kittens can usually be reared to live in a home.

Guidry, Maurice and Sullivan-Piwetz are proponents of the trap, neuter and release program, or TNR.

“From looking at other communities, TNR is the only way to control the colonies,” Sullivan-Piwetz said.

All three organizations use humane traps to capture the cats. The Feral Cat Consortium hands out free traps to residents, and the STSH rents them out for about $2 a day. The St. Tammany Animal Control employees also set out traps for the wild felines.

After the cats are spayed or neutered, they are returned to the same colony from which they are trapped. They also have their ears notched to show that they are neutered.

Guidry said her group is trying to educate people not to have wild cats euthanized, but instead have them neutered. She said the colonies where feral cats have been neutered survive very well, and then eventually die out.

“There is no fighting over mating and food, they don’t run away and get killed. They do pretty well for food by hunting,” Guidry said. “They are actually as healthy as domesticated cats. They are actually a lot safer.”

She said that having cats neutered is actually less expensive than euthanizing them. She said animal shelters have to board the cats at least three days before they are put down, which adds to costs, plus the drugs used for euthanizing are expensive.

There is the cost of surgery to contend with, but the STHS and the consortium are offering a $25 charge for the operation.

“That is half the cost of the operation,” Maurice said. “But we want to keep the price low so people will get it done.” The STHS has two veterinarians on staff that perform the procedures.

Guidry said the St. Tammany Animal Shelter offers vouchers for people with low income.

Guidry said her organization get about 1,000 cats neutered every year, and she said the colonies are reduced to four to five cats until they eventually die out. The consortium does go out and feed colonies, but Guidry said they only feed colonies where the cats have been neutered.

To help out in controlling the feral cat population, residents can call the Feral Cat Fix Project coordinator at 892-6442 for traps and to schedule surgery.

Guidry and the Feral Cat Consortium can be reached at 373-5937 for humane traps, and St. Tammany Animal Services can be reached at 882-4465. Even if a person cannot bring in cats, the STHS does need donations to continue their work. Donations can be sent to Feral Cat Fix Program, 20384 Harrison Ave., Covington, LA, 70433. Donations can also be made on the organization’s secure Web site, www.sthumane.org.