[Shandula]

I have seen several members on here talk about the stray/roaming pet problems in their respective cities, so I was just wondering how many people in different cities/countries notice a bad stray pet problem, and do you notice it more in a certain part of your city?

I've lived in a couple of different cities/houses as I grew up, some in the country, and a couple in the heart of my city (all in Ontario, Canada) and I don't think I have ever seen a stray/wandering dog. I will say that growing up, I would probably put my family in the lower end of middle class, we weren't rich, but we didn't live in the nicest neighborhood, but also not the worst. My cities also haven't been massively populated either, they have all been around 120,000 and my current city is 210,000.

Cats on the other hand are another story. I have seen SO many stray cats. In fact, two years ago, a cat got hit by a car on our road, and we heard some mewing, so we raised her 4 two week old kittens until we could find homes for them. It was definitely a challenge (particularly because I am 10000% not a cat person), kittens eat often, and the stimulating of urination/defecation was a new experience for me.

 

[Jeru]

I live in a very small town of about 3000. I haven't seen any stray dogs running around at all. But I go up north every year for half a year to a miners town. There I commonly see strays dogs.

In my small town we have seen plenty of stray cats. Our family has adopted two of them. One cat likes to attack Chester on our walks, so the stray cat thing is getting to the point of annoyance! I honestly think the reason of why we have so many stray cats around is because no one neuters them. Thus the cat population keeps growing.

 

[PoppyKenna]

I live on a farm; the closest town has about 200 people. I see stray cats all the time - many come over and just stay. We have a lot of farm cats around that just wander. I haven't seen a stray dog since I was younger.

When I lived in my college town (pop ~50,000 when the students are here) I rarely saw strays either. Although there were a lot of wandering cats that I assumed had homes, many of which ended up hit by cars, tragically.

 

[revolutionrocknroll]

There aren't really any stray dogs in my area- the few that are "strays" are usually just lost.

I know we have a feral cat population and I honestly can't tell the difference between outdoor pet cats, stray cats, lost cats, and feral cats. So I see a lot of cats around but the ones in suburban and urban neighborhoods I think are usually just pets? No idea, I wish people wouldn't let their pet cats roam.

 

[jclark343]

I live in a pretty suburban area. The houses range from upper lower class to solid middle class. We have some real scummy people and then some nicer people. I think my biggest problem is that people let their dogs run the neighborhood with no confinement. I probably see a loose dog once a month. I am usually the kind of person that stops to pick up the dog, but my husband gets mad at me when I do it. Roxie was a street dog, and I have found the owners for or taken dogs to the shelter MANY times.

Cats are EVERYWHERE. I am pretty sure I have once that frequents my backyard at night. I am also not a huge cat fan so I usually avoid them at all possible costs. Although a few Christmas Eves ago I was coming home from my now husband's house and saw one get hit by a car. I waited on the side of the road with it til someone came. Watched it take it's last breathe. Nothing quite like walking into your parents house balling on Christmas eve to shake things up...

 

[Sabina88]

Thankfully there aren't really any stray dogs in my area. We do get a good handful of dogs that get found but those are mostly dogs that have some how ran away/got away from their house/owner. And almost all of them get picked up by their families. For the most part my state doesn't really have a stray dog issue which is why a good chunk of our shelters bring dogs up from down south/out west.
We do have lots of cats in our shelter, but I never really see any stray cats in my area. Sometimes ill see a small handful but I don't think there strays. Could be wrong but non of them stick around long enough for me to get them and bring them in to the shelter to see if they belong to someone.

 

[mathilda]

We've got a stray cat problem in some regions here in Germany.
one big problem is that the house cats mix with wild cats, which are already in danger. another is, that a lot of stray cats, means they kill a lot of birds...especially ground-breeders are in danger.
they get in accidents and they starve to death because they get caught on basements or sheds.
the problem gets even bigger, because a lot of people don't sterilise or castrate their animals and every heat there are more of them.
it is not so bad as in a lot of southern countries though...perhaps because a certain percentage of the november kittens die when it's getting cold and we don't have so many tourists feeeding the stray cats.

stray dogs is not a problem at all.
If there is a dog, it either belongs to somebody or they are brought into the shelter. a lot of the dogs are chipped or tatooed, so when you bring such an animal to the vet, they can find out who the last official owner was.

 

[Gingersnaps]

Our feral cat population is insane. I've lived in bigger cities and hadn't seen anything like what we have here. Packs of 20 or more running en masse across rundown sectors of the downtown area. It's trippy to have to slam on your brakes and see pair after pair of eyes glowing at you.

 

[Rileysaur]

Stray dogs are pretty much unheard of here. If a dog is found it's either lost, stolen or abandoned. I think the only stray dogs you'll see are rez dogs but I don't know too much about the prevalence in ON..

Cats on the other hand are everywhere. I volunteer at a cat shelter and we set traps/bring in strays all the time. There are also several "colonies" that some of the volunteers feed/monitor.

 

[Pax]

I live just down from a wooded park that has a lot of Ferrel cats. There is a "crazy cat lady" that drives in every morning to feed them. I have yelled at her several times stating that she is in now way helping the cat population...no getting through, it is her mission.

Would not be so bad if she LIVED in the neighborhood, but she drives in to feed the dang cats leaving us to deal with all of them.

 

[Rileysaur]

I live just down from a wooded park that has a lot of Ferrel cats. There is a "crazy cat lady" that drives in every morning to feed them. I have yelled at her several times stating that she is in now way helping the cat population...no getting through, it is her mission.

Would not be so bad if she LIVED in the neighborhood, but she drives in to feed the dang cats leaving us to deal with all of them.

Ha! I never thought of it that way.. It's so interesting to see the different POVs. I know it was explained to me as more of an act of humanity. It's not the cat's fault that they're there and we're at capacity. So they usually feed them until we have space and trap/bring in what we can when we can.

What a moral dilemma

 

[ChessaQ]

Where I live, we have a ton of both stray dogs and cats. Probably more cats, but a lot of both. The shelters are always overflowing and it's really sad. Anyone that lives in the country gets dogs dumped in their driveways on a regular basis. Apparently if you live in the country, you have room for everyone's dumped animals. Ugh.

When my parents first moved into their neighborhood, when I was 10, there were about 25 stray cats. One by one, me and my brothers captured all of them and took them to the shelter. Only one became to smart to be caught, but vanished within a year.

In that same town, just a few years before we moved there, it became legal to shoot any stray dog you saw, because their numbers were so high and they were becoming dangerous and had attacked people on several occasions.

That's why I am a huge spay/neuter advocate. No I don't think you HAVE to, and if you are very careful and responsible, it's fine. But so many people around here leave their dogs loose all the time to breed, and because of it, there's so many dogs with no homes.

 

[Sha]

I've never seen a stray dog, just runways, whose owners I've contacted. I've lived in several different parts of the country, and both rural and urban areas.

Stray cats, though, is a totally different thing. Honestly, most of the humane societies and pounds here don't have dog population issues. They're quickly taken by adopters or shelters that foster. But every single humane society has too many cats.

Part of the issue here is farm cats. I love them and grew up on a farm with them, but rarely do folks get them fixed, so there are always more every year, and some will head to town to find more food and territory. Then there are still a lot of people who think it's cruel to keep cats inside all day and let them wander. It's very frustrating and disappointing. Cat overpopulation is a much bigger issue, imo, than dog overpopulation, especially because even with trap, fix, and release programs, ferals reproduce very quickly.

 

[traciek88]

In my actual home town we very rarely have stray dogs, but an increasingly bad feral cat population. Luckily some TNR is being done.

I work in NYC and there are countless numbers of stray dogs--mostly Pits, and mostly in low income areas. There are many other breeds but often they are reclaimed, or they are old dogs that were probably turned out. Cat populations much worse, and are absolutely insane. But again, with the TNR programs hopefully will reduce the population.

 

[Rain]

I live just down from a wooded park that has a lot of Ferrel cats. There is a "crazy cat lady" that drives in every morning to feed them. I have yelled at her several times stating that she is in now way helping the cat population...no getting through, it is her mission.

Would not be so bad if she LIVED in the neighborhood, but she drives in to feed the dang cats leaving us to deal with all of them.

Next time you see her ask her if she'd like help setting up a TNR program. Usually if you contact the shelter they will help you trap the cats and get them spayed or neutered for free then they are released back into their original territory if they are feral, the stray friendly ones, and kittens, are kept so that they can be found new homes. Doing that the lady will still be able fo continue her "mission" but the cat colony will not continue to grow.

 

[Rain]

I have seen one stray dog here. The cats though are many. Some seem to be truly feral and will run as soon as they catch sight or sound of a human. Some I believe were dumped or turned loose when their owners in the neighboring apartment complex move and abandon them, those general will not vanish at the sight or a human but they will not allow me to get close to them, they run if I try approaching them. Some may be indoor outdoor cats and have a home or have simply gotten lost. The feral and stray ones seem to live in the woods bordering the apartment complexes around here. I know of at least one lady that feeds a white one that was injured but seems to be doing better. She does not leave food out for him constantly but feeds him in the evenings and picks up the food when he's done eating.