17/08/2026
It's . A topic very close to our hearts as a street cat rescue. Given our meeting on Friday it has us thinking about an important distinction that we're not sure many people think about.
Take a look at each of our previous (and one current) fosters below. Ask yourself, do they look feral? Then ask, what does feral mean to you when you say it?
You may have seen international cat rescuers such as Kitten Lady or Jackson Galaxy discuss feral cats and your answer may be that you're using the term the way they do; to describe the unsocial behaviour that they're displaying. That's not how the term feral is used here in Australia though and it's important to make the distinction.
Feral cats in Australia are classed as living 1km or more away from human habitation. They have no reliance on humans at all and survive solely by hunting. They are the target of the millions of dollars that have been put in to killing feral cats.
To use the term feral for urban strays who are often able to be socialised and rely on humans for food is to give them a death sentence. Look at the picture below. Each one of the kittens pictured came from the streets. 99.9% of our now over 800 intakes have been from the streets. These cats and kittens are not feral, they're homeless. Each one is a result of a human who somewhere in the past abandoned an undesexed cat and left them to breed.
Homeless cats did not ask to be here. They are sentient beings who feel pain, fear, love and grief. Anyone who has had a bonded pair of cats where one of them has passed can tell you they feel loss and grieve just like us. Every urban homeless cat is just trying to survive the only way they know how.
It is our responsibility as humans to humanely deal with the cat population issue that is of our own making. The humane way is Trap, Desex, Adopt or Return to field. The now over 800 that we've taken into care certainly weren't feral. Even the ones that we've returned back to the backyards they were found were being fed by the person who called us.
Let's change the conversation about the semi-owned and unowned cats in Adelaide. Stop using the word feral, see them as what they truely are: Homeless.
