Campus cat lovers and University of Hawai`i at Manoa officials are baring their claws over the issue of caring for the packs of stray cats on campus.

According to the Hawaiian Humane Society, there are an estimated 99,000 stray feral cats on O`ahu. It seems like a good portion of these felines spend their days prowling around campus.

Parking guard Priscilla Nunn affirms this: "People complain there's so many cats over here."

Dumpsters and trash cans filled with half-eaten lunches provide some sustenance for strays, but more importantly, there are at least two people who feed the cats on a regular basis.

Roy Takekawa, director of environmental health and safety said Gerard Chapuis, the best-known cat feeder, is not involved with the university in any way.

"He comes (strictly) to feed the cats," Takekawa said.

Takekawa said the feeders take good care of the cats, but the problem is whether that kind of activity is appropriate on campus.

For Chapuis, this isn't an issue.

"I do it because I love them," he said, and quoted Blaise Pascal, a seventeenth century French poet and mathematician, adding, "Heart has its reason that reason knows not."

Chapuis said he has been feeding the cats in his free time every day for the past 15-and-a-half years and is grateful that he is allowed to feed the cats at night when it is quiet and cool and there are few people around.

But love isn't always enough. Caring for the strays costs money. Along with the cost of food and parking, Chapuis purchases new feeding supplies often.

"I used to have a nice little cat dish," he recalls.

Unfortunately, his dishes were stolen. Chapuis also tells of heartless passers-by crushing the plastic cups of water he leaves out in front of the East-West Center.

Students further contribute to his frustration when they take a cat as a pet and then "drop it off to fend for itself" when the semester is over, he said.

Caring for the cats is very demanding, Chapuis said, "in terms of time, in terms of money, and emotion-wise. If you do it because you love them...(you also have to realize that) anything can happen to the cat."

This is one of the main problems with feral cats, Takekawa said.

"It's not good for the cats to live outside," he said. "There are diseases, they get attacked by dogs, they get hit by cars."

"The life expectancy for a cat who lives outside is much shorter than a cat who's taken care of (indoors)," Takekawa said. "If you want to take care of a pet... it's in your house. Feeding the cats that live out in the wild...it's really sustaining them in a life that's not so great."

"They should have a home," Chapuis agreed. "There's no question about that, but that did not happen so what do we do? Gas them?"

Still, Takekawa said, "I don't think they're doing them any favors (by feeding them)."

Nevertheless, he concedes that other than the occasional flea problem, the cats don't seem to cause any real harm to the campus community.

Continued on next page...

[ TOP ]