Student builds shelters for Vermillion’s feral cat population
As the winter months get colder, a USD student is making it her mission to help the feral cats around town stay warm.
Sophomore Allaina Howard is in the process of providing winter protection for all the “Verm cats” in the area.
The shelters are made out of Rubbermaid bins and lined with tin foil and cardboard as installation. Cedar chips are used as bedding so that they can be easily replaced.
“I just thought they are going to be freezing this winter,” she said. “I found a cat shelter on Pinterest that was just made out of ordinary supplies and started asking people if they had any of the items.”
According to Alley Cat Allies, a feral cat advocacy organization, feral cats feel at home outside but need extra help in extreme winter weather to stay safe. One way to do that, according to the site, is by building winter shelters in a quiet, safe area.
Alley Cat Allies stresses the importance of shelters because in extreme weather cats will seek refuge underneath and in the engines of vehicles.
Howard has created three winter shelters. One is behind Dominos Pizza and the others are on private properties.
“The primary goal is to give them a place to stay in the winter, so they’re warm and don’t freeze out in the cold,” she said. “But the bigger goal is to work towards a trap-neuter-return (TNR) program. We want to work with local veterinarians and the school and fix this problem of all the cats.”
Howard wants to start a TNR program because the city only has a euthanization program.
“If animal control is getting complaints, the cats are trapped and euthanized. I don’t believe anyone has done something like this (made shelters) in the past,” Farrel Christensen, head of Vermillion’s Code Enforcement Department, said. “The milder the winter, the higher the population come spring.”
There is also a Go Fund Me page online titled “Save the freezing Vermillion cats.”
Howard said she isn’t related to the person running the page, but has reached out to her in efforts to work together.
Messages to the Go Fund Me page creator went unreturned.
Howard hopes her homemade shelters will launch community interest in a TNR program.
According to the Human Society of the United States, TNR programs stabilize cat colony while decreasing their population gradually over time.
“Right now our focus has been getting the cats shelter. There’s a lot of planning that goes with a catch-neuter-return program,” Howard said. “We started all of this a couple weeks ago and are really trying to kick it off. It’s something totally new.”
