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Humane Heroes

The Catman of Millbrook Farm

Tina Wright

The big, happy family of healthy, well-fed barn cats is a myth. Except when it's true...

In 1996, Dale Kinney returned to Millbrook Farm where he had worked first as a boy and then on weekends while putting himself through college. The Holstein dairy herd in the Finger Lakes region of central New York State had grown to 300 cows in the six years that he'd been gone. The barn cat herd had also expanded.

Kinney estimates that there were 30 cats at the farm in rural Freeville, near Ithaca, New York, when the feline population was the most out of control. "And I'd never been a cat person before that." He points at a chubby cat leaving the room off the milking parlor. "That cat started it all," he says. "One day I happened to be walking from the shop and here's this cat running under the milk truck with two fresh muffins in a plastic bag." The cat, Susha, had stolen Kinney's lunch from his pickup truck.

It was the beginning of a love affair. Kinney investigated and found an unchecked population of cats in varying states of health. Enlisting the help of his wife, Sandi, and the owners of Millbrook Farm, Ron and Ivy Space, Kinney began feeding the cats more food and treating upper respiratory illnesses. Every cat who had kittens was put on the spay list until the females were done. Then the males were neutered - except for a half-feral orange tom named Chester who was granted an exception and has never visited a vet.

Today Kinney cares for eight adult cats and three teenage kittens who were drop-offs in spring 2001. Like a proud papa, he presents photos: Big Boy as a fluffy orange kitten, now a 17-pound bruiser who rides around with Kinney on tractors; Tyger, who was so sick as a kitten; Commodity Shed Kitty and Vivian, the tigers who live in the buildings out back - almost identical twins, the two tigers were thought to be one cat until spaying one failed to prevent the other's pregnancy....

New Program Can Help
In Winter 2002 the Cortland County [NY] SPCA debuted a new program that will attack the problem of barn cat overpopulation in the area. Volunteer veterinarians from Cornell University's animal hospital in nearby Ithaca will trap all the cats on local dairy farms, then spay/neuter and inoculate them for rabies. A bequest of $135,000 to the SPCA's Animal Birth Control Committee from volunteer Helen Long funds this effort. Long, a proponent of spay/neuter programs for dogs and cats, passed away in 1998. The program allows nonfarmers to reach out to farmers in a project that can help curb feral cat numbers and also provide rabies protection in rural areas.

Barn-Cat Syndrome

Dairy farms are special targets for abandonment. People kid themselves that cats will have a good home there. "It's such an epidemic," Kinney states. "When I go to other farms, people just don't have a concern about cats. They're used for ratting, and it's the survival of the fittest. It scars your mind when you see them neglected."

The 33-year-old farm mechanic has taken many drop-off cats to the nearby Cortland County SPCA before they are killed on the unfamiliar road, crushed by farm machinery or even stepped on by cows. A few cats have joined the farm crew and Kinney has placed some with friends and family, including his own. Kibbles is a sweet, light-colored female who was dropped off at the dairy as a young adult. She quickly found her own little spot in a protected corral, but she approached humans with the sad cry of an abandoned house cat. Needing a place to recuperate after a difficult spaying, Kibbles joined Kinney's household and never left, turning out to be the kind of cat who can safely cuddle with their baby girl.

Some drop-offs involve lengthy rescue efforts. "It does seem really crazy," Kinney admits, "like sometimes things are really busy on the farm, but here I am putting all the equipment stuff on hold because of a cat. I had one drop-off get into the manure pit - I thought she was partially frozen, and I'll bet the whole process took three and a half hours." However, after warm baths cleaned her and heat lamps brought her body temperature back up, the young cat was quickly adopted at the SPCA, partly because of her dramatic rescue story. Another time Jeff, a field worker, found four tiny kittens who'd been dumped near the side of a hayfield. He gathered them up in the tractor cab and delivered them to Kinney.

Kinney credits Millbrook Farm's owners for backing his efforts. "Ivy really likes the animals and wants them taken care of. Ron and Ivy are excellent." Initial veterinary ex-penses, including neutering and inoculating all the cats and nursing the sick ones back to health, were high. "It's so easy to take care of them now that they're fixed," Kinney says. "They're so healthy." Since the veterinary clinic that cares for Millbrook's cow herd also sees small animals, visiting vets provide routine cat vaccinations for less money than office visits would cost. Kinney recommends that other dairy farmers ask their veterinary clinics to come up with a service to provide reasonable-cost care for their barn cats.

"I consider myself an animal rights activist," Kinney says, and his cat-loving karma seems to follow him around. Many times he finds stray or injured cats on the road. His wife, Sandi, never complains, even when her husband leaves family gatherings on his day off to go feed cats. Especially at the beginning, Sandi was her husband's partner in finding newborn litters and treating sick cats. She even received a beat-up black barn cat for her birthday one November!

When Kinney makes the rounds to his various feeding stations in the evening, there's always a big smile on his face. "This is what it's all about," he says. "Cats make you laugh when you're having a tough day. I really enjoy it."

Tina Wright, a freelance writer based in Groton, New York, specializes in animal agriculture.

ASPCA Animal Watch - Fall 2002