FERAL ANIMALS A DILEMMA FOR WILDLIFE AND PEOPLE

"The general dilemma I'm faced with as a veterinarian who hunts is, what do you do with a feral animal? Shoot it? Neuter and release it? Put it to sleep? If it has a collar on, do you shoot? I've never been able to do that myself, but it's tempting." Tom Proctor, North Augusta veterinarian, expresses ethical questions many of us encounter when it comes to once-domesticated animals now living in the wild.

"The wild-dog problem occurs when people dump a litter of puppies in the country," Proctor says. "These people don't want to put the puppies down, so they figure they'll give them a chance. Most of the puppies starve - they can't take care of themselves - or get eaten or run over." Those dogs that do survive, like the feral cats, swine and goats that are South Carolina's other primary feral types, can compete with native wildlife for available food, water and shelter, creating an imbalance in the ecosystem. Add to that the danger of transmitting various diseases to native wildlife and domesticated animals, as well as to people (gardeners, beware of allowing bare skin to touch soil contaminated by feral-animal excrement), and you have a definite problem.

So what's the responsible thing to do? For cats, Proctor advises that trapping, neutering and returning them to the city streets is not the solution. As a sensible alternative, S.C. Department of Natural Resources (DNR) biologist Lex Glover says, there's a current campaign to keep city cats indoors and feed them well to reduce the number of feral cats. It's called Cats Indoors and is sponsored by the American Bird Conservancy, which is, of course, concerned about the ongoing dent feral cats make in the songbird population.

Dart guns can be used to trap feral dogs, but the trapper still has to decide whether to euthanize or tame them. The best method of control for feral hogs is hunting them, according to Glover, though you can trap them, too. And always, make sure the animal you're hunting is truly feral, not a neighbor's property.

If you don't want to handle a feral animal yourself, the proper government agency to call is county animal control, not the DNR. However, county animal control deals only with dogs and cats. You're on your own for other animals.

County animal control can't help? Try private pest control. Every year, the DNR publishes a Nuisance Wildlife Control Operators list. Organized by county and by animals the operators handle, it may be viewed on the DNR Web site at http://www.dnr.state.sc.us/etc/rulesregs/img/nwco.pdf, or call the Columbia DNR office at (803) 734-3886. Caveat: Because there are not many operators, prices tend to be high.

"A kinder solution might be something like this," says Proctor. "If we had a place that didn't charge and didn't put you through the third degree about where you got the feral animals and why you wanted to get rid of them, people might take them there, and the animals could be euthanized. Until we get such a place, people will probably continue to drop animals in the country, and the problem will continue."

- Written by Rosanne McDowell -

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