Honest question here for the cat people.
My parents had a farm about 100km outside of Edmonton Alberta. Very cold in the winter. There was a population of semi-feral cats that lived in the barn.
The cats had a purpose - without them the mice would be rampant and Hanta virus is a serious issue. My dad put out a fixed amount of food every day. Weather and predators (foxes, coyotes, occasional cougars) kept the population basically stable - with occasional jumps if there were a lot of mice.
On occasion my parents would capture as many as they could and neuter them before letting them go in the barn again. Sometimes all the cats would be gone, and other cats would move in from neighbouring areas and farms.
So, was their decision to provide a fixed amount of food and some neutering the right one? What else could/should they have done?
