On Monday evening, around 5:30 p.m., Kathy Runnion placed two metal cage traps near a cottage at the Martinelli Ranch, with bowls of moist cat food strategically placed in the front, middle and the back of the enclosures.
Ms. Runnion’s group, Planned Feralhood, is working on behalf of the Marine Humane Society to capture 15 feral cats at the 250-acre ranch.
For many years, a tenant living at one of the homes on the ranch, run by Leroy Martinelli, fed the felines with food provided by Planned Feralhood. But Mr. Martinelli’s 25-year reservation of use and occupancy for the ranch, located north of Point Reyes Station on land managed by the Point Reyes National Seashore, ended in 2012.
The park does not allow ranchers to sublease either grazing lands or residential units under agricultural leases, which the park offered him but which are more restrictive than R.U.O.’s
Mr. Martinelli decided not take a new lease, he told the Light earlier this year. But he and the park are still “working on formalizing the end of the relationship,” according to the seashore’s outreach coordinator, Melanie Gunn.
She said the park intends to maintain cattle grazing on the property, but a formal succession plan won’t be determined until the park’s first-ever ranching management plan is complete. (A draft is due in early 2016.)
At the beginning of this month, the longtime tenants, some living on the property for well over a decade, had to evacuate the home and trailers. The park is now allowing the Marine Humane Society to remove the cats, since park regulations prohibit feral animals on park property.
“Specifically in the case of cats, there is well-documented research of cats being a hazard to songbirds,” Ms. Gunn said.
After each cat is caught, Ms. Runnion will take it to the Point Reyes Animal Clinic to be vaccinated and evaluated for potential medical problems. (The cats were spayed or neutered years ago, also by a humane society program coordinated by Planned Feralhood.)
Then Ms. Runnion will bring them to her group’s enclosure in West Marin until she finds new homes for them. “So we need to find locations, and we need help with donations to support all the medical costs and food and everything,” she said, adding that costs could run to $300 or more per cat.
On Monday evening, with assistance from Point Reyes Station resident Lynn Axelrod, Ms. Runnion managed to capture two, although it took all evening.
The cats are intelligent. The first one to approach, an orange tabby, sniffed suspiciously around the cage and ate the food it could reach without triggering the closure of the cage door.
“They know something’s up. They’re really smart,” said Ms. Runnion, adding, “With all this upheaval, they’re pretty stressed.”