Hello Everyone,
Thank you all for your responses. I really appreciate your input and thoughts. My question was very preliminary, so I’m still unsure if anything will come of it. But I now have several great resources and thoughts to consider, should our museum decide to keep feral cats on site for pest control.
Thanks again!
Stephanie Gilmore
Curator of Collections
Colorado Railroad Museum
From: Wiley, Cynthia [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2016 8:43 PM
To: Stephanie Gilmore
Subject: [GRAYMAIL] [MUSEUM-L] Feral Cat Colonies as Vermin Control at Living History Sites
Hi Stephanie,
At Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site in La Junta, CO, we have two cat groups - one domesticated, one feral. The domesticated include two cats that live in the fort - they have free run of the rooms and outside the fort during the day. The park does lock them in a room at night to protect them from raccoons and other predators. Food, water, and a litter box are provided. They do take care of our mice issues - we have few hanta virus concerns and are no longer required to wear respirators when cleaning. They will also kill the occasional toad, bat, or snake, but we consider that part of the living history atmosphere. It's reality. We use domesticated cats in this sphere because we want them to be able to interact positively with the visitors, which overwhelmingly they do. They have nipped the odd person that over-bothered them, but usually they just take off. They've been known to walk over to a seated visitor and just curl up in their laps, which is generally considered charming.
The feral cats are mostly abandoned or transient cats that live around our maintenance building, a quarter mile from the fort and our domestic pair. We've participated in trapping and spay/neutering them, but they come and go so we do wind up with kittens sometimes. They live outside and other than the above occasional vet care and some cat food and water that staff puts out unofficially, they're on their own. But they do help us out with mice - we don't have a huge problem with mice anywhere in the park.
As part of our living history situation, we do have chickens and peacocks, but none of the cats seem to bother them much. I did see one of the domesticated cats stalking a very young peachick this spring, but mama peahen dissuaded the cat from continuing.
I'm not sure if this is the type of information you are looking for, but this is what we do. It's historically accurate for our setting and works for us. Let me know if you have additional or specific questions.
Cynthia Wiley
Museum Curator, High Plains Group
Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site
35110 Hwy 194 East
La Junta, CO 81050-9523
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