“So, why do you bother spaying or neutering feral kittens?” The woman asked, frowning. “Why don’t you just humanely destroy them when they are trapped?”

The question, posed by a wildlife biologist with whom we were having dinner, stopped me. I was having dinner with four other volunteers for the Spay Neuter Task Force, having just finished a long day working on spaying or neutering cats and kittens.

Susan, the other veterinarian at the table, my husband, Derek, and I exchanged a glance. How could we explain our commitment to cat population control? The biologist’s question was legitimate.

I thought about a day last month when Laura Levengood, my associate, was working her way through “fixing” several feral mother cats and their kittens the Wild Cat Conservators had captured and brought into our clinic. The goal of the WCC is to focus on one feral colony at a time, trap, spay or neuter, and release every single cat in the colony. Over time the colony will disappear because there are no kittens to replace the adults lost to various causes. If a kitten seems especially friendly, we keep it and place it in a loving home—after it is spayed or neutered.

I glanced into the surgery room as Laura focused intensely on the tiny kitten under anesthesia. I stopped as I recognized her efforts were not surgical at that moment, but rather she was working diligently to resuscitate the little orange body. Quickly a breathing tube was placed and one of the assistants started to ventilate the kitten. I grabbed a stethoscope and listened carefully to his tiny chest. No heartbeat. A syringe with epinephrine appeared in my hand and I carefully injected the stimulant directly into the kitten’s heart. No change. Laura massaged his chest, oxygen continued to be pumped into his lungs, I still could hear no heart beat. I grabbed a needle and quickly inserted it into a major acupuncture resuscitation point in the kitten’s nose. I twisted and poked the needle aggressively into the spot feeling that I had nothing to lose.

Suddenly the kitten’s heart started to beat! We could see it through his frail rib cage. Still not breathing, but being ventilated, Laura quickly neutered its so as not to lose any time. His heart continued to beat steadily and with continued acupuncture stimulation soon he was breathing on his own. I breathed a silent, thankful prayer for the Chinese medicine training I have. When he recovered from anesthesia, he was blind and deaf. As I lobbied for giving him a little time so we could see how much he might recover, a discussion arose about his inability to live in the wild, and we seriously considered putting him down, but decided to wait and see for a few days. Perhaps we could find a loving home for a “special needs” kitty — if he lived.

Over the next few days, with good medical support, he regained both sight and hearing and, best of all, decided that being a friendly kitten was rather nice. With his friendly disposition and happy purr the kitten quickly created a spot as a favorite at the clinic and his name soon changed from Simple Simon to just Simon as we recognized that he truly had completely recovered from his near death experience. One of my staff adopted him and she tells us endearing stories nearly everyday about Simon and her young son and their delightful adventures together.

As I considered the biologist’s question and thought about the happy ending Simon’s story had, I recalled the heinous acts of some troubled young men who tortured cats to death recently here in Helena. “Who is to say what life is valuable?” I asked the biologist. “The feral cats and kittens we spay or neuter live healthier lives than they would otherwise and they don’t reproduce. Some of them become dearly beloved companions to people. I simply could not just destroy them because they have no perceived value to us. They have value to themselves and God and that is important. How we humans treat other species is integral to what sort of species we are. I absolutely believe compassionate treatment of the creatures we share this planet with is imperative.”

Susan and Derek nodded their agreement.

I was a little surprised at the passion with which I defended our care of feral cats. I could easily understand the biologist’s question. Maybe destroying wild cats is a reasonable way to deal with the overpopulation issues we see. However, I am committed to spaying or neutering these cats and allowing them to live out their lives. And a surprising number of the feral cats and kittens our clinic spays or neuters end up in loving homes offering their sweet companionship to human beings.

Tia Nelson is a local veterinarian specializing in an integrated approach to animal health that combines traditional veterinary medicine with holistic, natural practices.