Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
ferals, which suggested that the animals were decidedly 'out of place' in a residential
neighbourhood. One of those unhappy about the presence of ferals claimed:
There are health issues associated with cats going all over in flower pots, sand
boxes and yards…. Granted they were here before us, but how can you have
wild animals in a residential neighbourhood?
('College Terrace…' 1995)
In support of acceptance of ferals in the wild, Remfry (1996:520) maintains that
feral cats are 'intrinsically interesting and a source of pleasure to many people who
feed them and care about them'. In particular, feeders will defend what they see as
the interests of cats, perhaps by refusing to give information to either pest control
officers or others who may be seen as potentially hostile. A third, probably less
common situation is one where feral cats are a familiar part of the urban landscape
and are generally accepted as belonging, such as the Fitzroy Square colony in
London which was admired by members of the Bloomsbury set, provided the
subject for T.S.Eliot's cat poems, was celebrated in music by Andrew Lloyd
Webber, and was still in existence in the 1970s (Remfry 1996).
Feral cats in Hull
These arguments about the relationship between people and wild nature, linked to
the placing of animals, helped us in thinking through the relationship between people,
place and feral cats in the city of Hull. We were able to locate thirty-one feral cat
sites in the Hull area. This was done, first, by one of us (IP) contacting
environmental health officers in the city who had addresses from which complaints
about ferals had been received. As the agency responsible for pest control, the
Environmental Health Department of the City Council has an obligation to
respond to these complaints. Additionally, information came from a voluntary
organisation, Hull Animal Welfare. In some of the locations it was possible to make
contact with friends of ferals, including feeders, as well as people antagonistic to the
cats, and these contacts provided further information on other sites. Thus, we were
able to build up a 'cat map' of the city. Fourteen of the sites were close to houses;
five in industrial areas, including derelict industrial sites; and five were in or around
institutions, including residential homes for the elderly and a hospital. Three
colonies, including one of the largest, were found on allotments, and there were
single groups in a cemetery, in the grounds of a church and, allegedly, on grassland
next to the River Humber. Residential locations are probably over-represented,
clearly because it is in residential areas that the presence of ferals is most likely to
seem discrepant, an offence to domestic order, and thus to prompt a complaint to
the local Environmental Health Department. Conversely, 'wild' areas, remote from
houses, may have feral colonies which are unobserved and unreported.
At the sites we visited, we spent time observing cat behaviour and site
characteristics, as well as, in a few instances, talking to people with an interest in the
