CAN YOU RETURN FOSTER KITTENS TO THE STREETS ONCE THEY'RE WEANED? CAN I RELOCATE KITTENS/CATS TO OTHER PLACES?

The answer is NO. To BOTH questions.

Here in Israel, we have a very special problem: too many cats on the streets and not enough homes. Lots of people will pass by a screaming (or not screaming) kitten and take it home to “save” it, only to dump it back on the streets in a few months once it’s independent. Lots of foreign people will take kittens or cats home just for the duration of a visit of a few weeks, months or a year (or few years...you get the idea) and then have no issue with throwing them out on their asses once they leave or lose interest. I call it pet rental, and it’s a curse brought here by the endless streams of exchange students, people taking a few years off of real life, people who come for the 2 years of Army, etc. Of course locals do it too, because there are bad people everywhere, but it is practically a given that a huge proportion of visitors here will “save” and then dump a kitten or puppy. Also, there are lots of people who have great intentions when they take a tiny animal home, but who have no desire to actually provide for that animal once it grows up. They then realize how hard it is to find homes for pets, and how few options there are for safe sheltering. For these people, putting the cat back out on the streets once it can feed itself seems perfectly decent and logical.

BUT IT ISN’T.

You cannot return a kitten or cat to the streets. They are now house cats and are not the least bit adapted to or comfortable with street life. Some people think animals are invincible or have instincts that help them to survive against all odds, but it isn’t true. They are afraid, confused and vulnerable, and have no way to find help. They won’t survive, even if released to the same spot you got them from. They will die of disease, starvation, car accidents, dehydration, abuse; a few might survive...long enough to make more babies who will suffer on the streets. In other words, the abandonment of a cat or dog who has been raised in a home is cruelty, and in Israel is illegal and punishable by law. It is not enough to “save” them when they are babies--they are now dependent on good people in nice homes FOR LIFE. And life is 10-20 years.

AS TO RELOCATION:

Lots of people feel the temptation to move kittens out of harm’s way...or to remove “annoying” cats to other places. In both situations, the cats will die. A kitten on its own, with no mom, in a strange place, will either die quickly of starvation/dehydration/disease/injury or scream its head off until someone else comes to save it. There is little to no in between. Adult cats who are relocated will immediately stray off in search of available territories, which they may never find--here in Israel, there is infinite competition for space and resources. Along the way, they will be chased from food and water by local cats, attacked by territorial toms, shooed off from new hideouts by people who don’t want them there either, subjected to new illnesses they have no resistance to, injured while running across streets and trying to get into hiding places, and will probably die sooner rather than later.

Extended to wild animals...while I’m on the topic...answers are the same. Only a few percentage points worth of re-released wild animals survive more than about a week. I’m not guessing at this. The numbers are well-known in wildlife rehab, ecology and captive breeding.

SO, TO BE BLUNT:

You can’t release cats back to the streets, and you can’t move them. They aren’t magical creatures who can adapt to any situation. They are vulnerable and defenseless.