The downside of that in relation to ferals is that you'd have to handle the
animal to be able to see if it's tattooed. Many a feral can't (or won't) be
handled. That may involve an otherwise unnecessary sedation to handle the
animal - and that too carries risks. The advantage of the earclip is that it's
*obvious* and if an already speyed/neutered animal is in a trap, it can be
released without any handling if obviously identified as previously
speyed/neutered, thus avoiding sedation in order to check. Plus - tattoos fade
over time whereas the earclip doesn't.
As the clip of the ear is done when the animal is under anaesthethic for
speying/neutering, it's not an "extra" procedure as such. Personally, I don't
see it as a mutilation, if it's something that genuinely adis those who are
working with ferals to easily identify whihc cats in a colony have been
speyed/neutered already.

Just my £0.02, and anyone can feel free to disagree :-)

Cheers, helen s

--This is an invalid email address to avoid spam--
to get correct one remove fame & fortune
h*$el*$$e*nd**$o$ts**i*$*$m*m$o*n*s@$*a$o*l.c**$om$

--Due to financial crisis the light at the end of the tunnel is switched off--

Most cats are too feral to look inside an ear once you catch them.. so you
would have to sedate them to find out if they had the tattoo, and once
you've done that, you might as well look under the tail or shave the belly
to see if they have done it, and that is not only a waste of anesthesia, its
not good for the cats.

Cats do not suffer when their ears are cut.  My own cat got into a cat fight
once and her ear was ripped, and she barely noticed it.  It was tougher on
me than on her.

can't see a tatoo from a distance.  I understand this is a method of
identifying ferals who have been neutered.

Might be a lot less stressfull for the cat to have an ear notched in
the long run, though. The notched ear could easily be seen when the
cat is trapped, and it could be released without any handling. I
imagine they'd have to drag the cat out and restrain it to see a
tattoo, which is not easy with a feral wildcat convinced you mean it
harm. I imagine the feeders in a trap, neuter and release program
could put out food, then sit back with binoculars and see if there are
any new unneutered additions to the colony, avoiding the trap
altogether.

Can't help but wish there was a some other way, though.

jmcquown howled at the moon, then scrawled thusly upon the aether:

[...]

Eek! Nonononono. A tattoo inside a cat's ear, besides being very very
very painful (all those nerves), would risk even worse disfigurement
(think damage to the ear's support structures) than a notch in the ear.
This is why ID tattoos (like those common in show rabbits) are *never*
put in the ears of dogs or cats... instead, they're put on their belly
skin (or nowhere at all, now that we have microchipping).

One of my babies has a notch (not from a rescue group, from a fight he
got into) in his left ear from his "big bad tomcat" days, and he's really
not any less handsome or cuddly for it. I *do* hope that the rescuers are
taking precautions against infection, though.

Maeve

That'd depend upon what color the cat is, wouldn't it?  

If you can come up with a method that will not put a feral cat at risk by
reducing it's fitness to hunt, escape predators, and get along with the rest
of the colony, that is cheap enough to be within the budget of an
organisation funded and run by unpaid volunteers, is permanent, and can be
checked without actually needing to re-trap the cat, then please tell me
about it.

Jeanette