The number of wild, or feral, cats living in St. Lawrence County is impossible to count, but some estimate it numbers into the thousands and is growing every day.

"In my opinion, it is a crisis because we've just got oodles of cats that have no homes," said Bea Schermerhorn, founder of Spay Neuter Now.

Schermerhorn says managing the county's feral cat population is difficult because it is so complicated and the situation has gotten worse with the stalled economy.

She says a cooperative approach is necessary to get a handle on the problem.

She even suggests the licensing of cats to allow some funds to be directed towards sterilization.

"This would be something that would be implemented. It would not become a minor disaster," said Schermerhorn.
 
Colonies of free roaming feral cats living in rural and populated areas have escalated, often mixing with barn cats - creating health risks by bringing diseases, such as feline leukemia, feline immunodeficiency virus and even rabies.

Abandoned cats can become feral within one generation and can breed and multiply rapidly.

"It quickly gets up to 50 to a hundred cats within just a handful of years," said Kevin Mace, manager of Spay Neuter Now.
 
The cat population has grown so much that local animal shelters like the in Potsdam are being overwhelmed with cats and kittens.
 
"The litters then become feral. We're seeing those on the sides of roads. People are bringing them in in box loads," said Anne Smith of the Potsdam Animal Shelter.

Nearly a dozen feral cats who had taken up residence in a vacated house in Gouverneur were recently caught and taken to local shelters.

Meanwhile, some have used a trap-neuter-spay release program in an attempt to reduce the feral cat breeding population, while others just provide the felines with food, water and shelter.