Save the Cats on the NSU Davie Campus!

Nova Southeastern University’s Davie Campus has been home to dozens if not hundreds of free roaming cats over the course of many years. It is estimated there are currently between 50 to 150 cats living peacefully on campus in colonies.

Recently NSU staff have imposed a misguided feeding ban and threatened employees and students who are simply showing kindness towards the cats.

This is the Sun Sentinel new story about the feeding ban.
https://www.facebook.com/sunsentinel/posts/10157764490876887

These cats are food-dependent, pose no threat and rely on humans to survive. The cats’ presence also offers students and staff emotional support and a bit of comfort away from home. This leads to a happier and healthier campus experience.

Many campuses across the US (University of West Florida, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Duke University, Stanford University, William Paterson University in New Jersey and Utah's USU) all have successful community cat programs in place and do not have feeding bans.

What is missing at NSU is the spirit of cooperation, compassion, and proper management of the cats. The sudden and rapid enforcement of a feeding ban against the cats jeopardizes their lives. Starving cats is not an option.

Even the Humane Society of the United States is opposed to feeding bans.
https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/outdoor-cats-faq#feeding-bans

A number of students, staff and the community are in support of implementing a program to protect the cats and ask that NSU reverse their feeding ban if only temporarily.

We ask that you allow for the humane treatment of all cats on campus. Those who can be adopted through a local nonprofit rescue partnership will and those that cannot should be properly cared for as campus kitty ambassadors.

Employees and Students should not be threatened because they are showing kindness to food-dependent cats. Individuals feeding the cats are followed, harassed and threatened and living in fear of retribution. 

We are concerned by the refusal of NSU to embrace best practices when it comes to Ethical Cat Colony Management. They can and should use the conflict resolutions skills they teach on campus to foster good will with staff. Hostile language has been used against staff  like "get rid of the cats", and that the cats can “fend for themselves”, which in reality creates a vacuum effect and weakens them and makes them sick.

We’re personally asking the President and CEO Dr. George L. Hanbury  II, Ph.D. to temporarily reverse this feeding ban until an Ethical Cat Colony Management program can be created.

Proper management of a colony includes daily feeding, fresh water, medical care and TNR. These components work in tandem with each other under the umbrella of humane management.   TNR alone or sporadically is ineffective, has nothing to do with feeding and is not recommended as the only method used.

It is the strong recommendation of the undersigned that NSU support proper and responsible humane management of the cats on all their campuses which includes:

• Reversing the feeding ban temporarily until a formal program is created to provide humane and ethical care for all the campus cats.
• Establish a NOVA PAWS (Protecting Animal Wellness Society) program. Create an Ethical Cat Colony Management program based on best practices and in partnership with NSU Administration, Student Affairs, and a local nonprofit animal rescue.  Labor will be donated by volunteers. Creating a formal process and organization allows for complete control and humane treatment. It is not only wiser and kinder but it allows for a system of checks and balance, medical care, TNR, adoptions and true oversight of the well being of all cats on campus.
• Continuous TNR efforts for all cats on a daily and weekly basis.
• All cats should be ear notched, micro chipped, vaccinated, photographed, have medical charts and registered. Any cats in need of medical care should be treated promptly. An effort should be made to formerly adopt out any social cats into loving homes via a local animal rescue partnership.
• All feeders and caretakers (Students, Employees and Community Members) must be pre-approved and registered by the NOVA PAWS (Protecting Animal Wellness Society) program. Registration means adhering to NOVA PAWS responsible feeding practices and community cat care.
• Establishment of feeding stations to provide food and fresh water daily. Currently, the cats are drinking from mud puddles and eating off the ground which increases their risk of infections from parasites.
•  Humane Education program as part of NOVA PAWS to include animal advocacy experts and guest speakers from local wildlife organizations. Work on the root causes for animals being abandoned on campus.

 

The Humane Society of the United States opposes feeding bans because they do not work. HSUS states the logic behind bans on feeding feral cats is that if there is no food available, the cats will go away. This rarely happens.

HSUS says cats are territorial animals who can survive for weeks without food and will not easily or quickly abandon their territory. As they grow hungrier and more desperate, they tend to venture closer to homes and businesses in search of food. Despite the effort to starve them out, the cats will also continue to reproduce, resulting in the deaths of many kittens.

Second, HSUS states that feeding bans are nearly impossible to enforce. A person who is determined to feed the cats will usually succeed without being detected. Repeated experience has shown that people who care about the cats will go to great lengths to feed starving animals. In addition, there may be more than one feeder and other sources of food, including dumpsters, garbage cans and other animals.

Alley Cat Rescue also opposes feeding bans. ACR says these bans incorrectly assume that if people stop feeding feral cats, they will simply leave the area and the problem will be over. This is not the case. Feeding bans are not only ineffective, but cruel. They suddenly cut off an expected source of food for cats and criminalize compassion.

​Cat caretakers are compassionate people who want to help cats in their area.

Compassion should not be criminalized but encouraged. Kindness towards all cats on campus should be a priority.