Wild Cats (Not Wildcats) on Davidson College Campus

living behind Physical Plant,” Doughten said.

Spring in Davidson means warm weather, preparation for Frolics and trips to Lampus. However, as the season approaches this year, a number of students and community members hope to bring attention to an overlooked event of spring: feral cat breeding season.

In suburban communities like Davidson where people sometimes release pet cats into the wild, feral cat populations can grow rapidly. For the past few years, a local nonprofit, Cats of Davidson, has been working to humanely reduce the Town of Davidson’s growing feral cat population.

“Because of how prolific cats are with breeding, there are programs out in the United States called TNR, which stands for ‘Trap, Neuter, and Release,” said Amy Doughten, the Vice President of Cats of Davidson. “It is a humane way of reducing the cat population. As part of the TNR program, we give them a rabies shot, vaccination shots, and we ensure they’re healthy. Then, they’re returned out into the wild.”

In addition, volunteers with the Cats of Davidson oversee feral cat colonies after the TNR process and continue to provide food and warmth to the cats if necessary.

Doughten and Cats of Davidson founder Roni LaBarbera have successfully identified feral cat colonies throughout Davidson. They have employed the TNR technique to reduce future population growth while ensuring the cats can continue to live together healthily.

Explaining the importance of their work, Doughten said, “we reduce the risk of disease. We reduce the risk of a cat being hungry and biting someone. Frankly, at the end of the day, it’s the right thing to do. It’s the right thing to try to stop suffering where you can.”

Despite the organization’s success, Cats of Davidson has one particular colony they have yet to work with, and it’s here on Davidson College campus.

“We know that there’s a very large community on Davidson College grounds

A number of feral cats have died this year in the Physical Plant facility. David Holthouser, Director of Facilities and Engineering, confirmed that cats have died on warm engines and in the trash compactor during the 20222023 school year.

LaBarbera and Doughten believe these deaths could be prevented if Cats of Davidson was permitted to operate on campus.

“All of these things can be avoided,” LaBarbera said. “They’re in the garbage because they’re hungry, which we can avoid by feeding them. They’re in the engines of the heavy machinery because they’re cold, which we can fix by providing what we call feral dens, bins with styrofoam coolers inside.”

Earlier this year, LaBarbera and Doughten approached the school administration seeking to implement its TNR program in and around Physical Plant. In response, Director of Auxiliary Services Terry Richards investigated the campus’ feral cat situation. He consulted Holthouser, who oversees Physical Plant, as well as Julian Coaxum, the Campus Police Chief.

“We talked to David [Holthouser] because David’s shops are on the periphery of campus. Plus he has staff who work early morning and nighttime,” explained Richards. “They’re more likely to see this going on. We talked to Julian Coaxum because he has officers on campus all hours of the day and night.”

After speaking with Holthouser, Richards determined not to direct school resources towards the feral cat population.

“The observation was not that we don’t have any feral cats. That would be silly. But it really was not described as problem number one of all the problems that we’re dealing with on campus,” Richards said.“What we did talk about was to establish a memorandum of understanding (MOU).”

If established, such a document would express an agreement between Davidson College and Cats of Davidson that allows the organization to operate under certain conditions, such as liability insurance or safety precautions.

However, no MOU has been put in place at this point, so Cats of Davidson cannot currently operate on campus.

For Holthouser, the safety and liability of Cats of Davidson operating around Physical Plant stand out as key concerns.

“This is an industrial shop complex with machinery, tools, big trucks, and big equipment moving in and out all day long,” he emphasized. “It’s a location that we certainly would have to arrange if they are approved by the college.”

While Cats of Davidson cannot currently work directly with feral cats in and around Physical Plant, LaBarbera hopes to lure the cats away from the industrial area in the future.

“We can move the cats. It will take us a while because we have to feed them. 10 feet to the left, 10 feet to the left and pull them out to the trail that runs alongside the facility,” she said.

According to Richards, the possibility of future operations around Physical Plant depend mainly upon two matters: liability and student demand.

“We’d need weigh-in from legal counsel to make sure that we’re not opening ourselves up to something that would have legal insurance incidents we hadn’t anticipated,” he explained. If liability can be accounted for, then any further action will require student involvement.

“The reality is that the college administration doesn’t decide what matters,” Richards said. “The students decide.”

Joanna Schwartz ‘25 has begun efforts to mobilize students to demand support for the feral cat population.

“Right now, I’ve branded us as Cats of Davidson x Davidson College,” Schwartz said. “Grace Semrau and I have made posters and talked to friends about it. We have over 20 students now who said they’d be interested. Our next step is to get an official club and a faculty advisor.”

If Schwartz and other students are successful in chartering a new organization on campus, then Cats of Davidson, working with a student organization and an MOU, could potentially initiate its formal TNR and education programs. As put by Doughten, “not everybody’s going to care about this, but we need enough people that do care, that want to help make a difference.”

Virginia

Airen

Sarah Baker

Olivia Howard ‘24

Anya

Kelsey Chase ‘24

Zuber Chawla ‘25

Greer Levy ‘26

Julia Siqueria ‘26

Catherine O’Connor ‘24