The Burlington County Animal Shelter has many cats who are difficult to place in traditional homes, ranging from feral (wild) cats who can never live indoors, to independent-minded, friendly cats who strongly prefer to live on their own terms and would be deeply unhappy if they were forced to live indoors. Barn cats make for great poison-free rodent and pest control! The presence of healthy, fixed cats can also help keep unfixed, unhealthy cats away from your property.
You Provide:
- safe shelter from the elements
- fresh food and water every day
- veterinary care when necessary
BCAS Provides:
- spay/neuter
- vaccinated for distemper (FVRCP)
- vaccinated for rabies
- treated for fleas, if applicable
- deworming (friendly cats only)
Cost: FREE! All Barn Cat adoptions are free of charge with a short application process. Donations gratefully accepted.
Contact the Burlington County Animal Shelter for more information or to apply for adoption.
Why Adopt a Feral Cat?
We created this program to help a specific population of cats in desperate need of assistance in our county– feral cats. Cats in general come on a wide spectrum, ranging from friendly, domesticated kitties who want to live in your home, to community cats who are semi-friendly but prefer living outdoors, to feral cats, who are essentially undomesticated wildlife that want nothing to do with humans. It’s this last category of cat that have historically been euthanized in the millions in shelters around the world for decades, and unfortunately our shelter still has almost no alternatives for ferals even today. The Barn Cat Adoption Program is an attempt to give these cats a second chance at life, as well as a purpose as useful working animals.
The benefits to having feral cats on your property are numerous: Ferals are natural hunters and deterrents to rodents and pests. When they’re neutered and healthy, like ours are, ferals are also deterrents to unneutered, unhealthy cats wandering onto your property. Even better, adopting a feral cat is an extremely easy way to save a life; true ferals will rarely be seen again once you introduce and release them on your property. You may catch their eyes glinting in the night, or see them huddled up in a warm corner on a cold night, but for the most part they like to remain invisible and low-maintenance.
Adopting a BCAS feral cat will mean you’re encouraging a healthy, stable population of nigh-unseen rodent hunters. Ferals still need to be fed and monitored periodically for health issues, but the vast majority of feral cats already know how to take care of themselves, and will live a full and happy life as an outdoor cat.
In short, feral cats are great because:
- They’re excellent pest control, hunters, and deterrents
- They deter unhealthy, unfixed cats on your property
- They’re low maintenance and usually not even seen
Best of all, we adopt ferals out for FREE after a short application process!
Contact the Burlington County Animal Shelter for more information or to apply for adoption.
Rehoming Cats
Our Barn Cat Adoption Program is not able to help you rehome your feral or fractious cats. The program was designed to help the cats we already have at our shelter, and unfortunately the availability of barns and colonies we can place at are already too limited to handle the cats we have. We recommend you look into Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) to help take care of feral cats in your community.
Acclimating Cats to Barns
These external websites have some great tips on acclimating cats to barns and outdoor homes.