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Sixty million abandoned cats run loose in America. That's the latest estimate of experts a pure guess, of course, but it still makes the point. Susan Fleming says about 10,000 roam the barrier island of Miami Beach. That's a guess, too. Fifty of these cats she calls hers. And even that is a rough calculation.

At this sultry sundown, just as every night, seven days a week, Fleming ventures out and feeds them. She waits for cover of darkness, because there is no guessing about this: Cats are causing big trouble in the land. Nature and the nature of cats are in collision. Cats are killing birds. Cats are killing small wild creatures of all kinds. Animal lovers find themselves disturbed and angry, and a world apart about what to do.

With so many million cats now roaming back yards, open lots, beaches and parks, no less of an organization than the Humane Society of the United States, a group born of pet owners, has now joined in the call: It's time to bring all cats indoors and keep them there. For the good of the cats and wildlife. Conservationists say hurry up, it's about time. Felines don't get a voice in the matter, but those who would speak for them say don't sacrifice cats, it's not their fault. As never before, Americans are being asked to alter their bond with the domestic cat. "OK, kids," Susan Fleming coos down an alleyway, clanging spoon against bowl. Cats bound over fences, drop down from trees, squeeze from underneath buildings, tails erect, eyes aglow, mouths watering. From a car that smells of sodden kibble, Fleming makes 13 dinner stops in just a few square blocks. Elsewhere in the back streets and parks, along the boardwalk and around the dunes, 100 or more people, mostly women, divide up the city. Stand back for a bigger view: Untold multitudes nationwide are out feeding cats. Extrapolating the density of Miami Beach's feeders to the entire nation, there could be 300,000 people like Fleming, digging into their pockets to pay for cat food, answering what she calls the "curse of compassion." Maybe the numbers are unimaginably greater. Estimates come up with as many as 17.5 million cat feeders. Whatever the real count, it is large enough to split America's animal lovers, because stray cats are predators and so are the millions of house cats allowed to roam free. They kill more than 1 billion small mammals and hundreds of millions of birds each year. That's the guess of scientists. After simmering for generations, the whole question of cats in America is boiling over. The humane society, the largest animal welfare organization in the country, anguished about the conflict for years. This fall, it joined with the American Bird Conservancy and assumed leadership in defining the proper place for cats in a crowded nation: The groups declared cats should be subject to municipal animal controls, or protections if you prefer, just the same as dogs. It's not responsible to let your cat roam, they said. After lagging behind dogs for most of the 20th century, cats have become our most popular and numerous pets, with 53 million of them in 34 million households. The humane society estimates 60 million roam the country without owners. Total cats: 113 million and surely increasing. Never before has such an important animal welfare group asked so much of its members: to rein in their house cats and, even more, to rid the nation of free-ranging felines. "It is," said society Vice President Wayne Pacelle, "one of the biggest challenges of the humane movement." It is also, he concedes, the most "radical notion" for pet owners since the campaign for spaying and neutering began in earnest in the 1950s. Even this hardly says enough. The people who own cats, and particularly those who accept responsibility for unowned cats cat people, as they sometimes are called can be righteous crusaders. Cats, after all, are innocent of everything except their nature. They are, like children, blameless. Cat people must protect them. Driving through Miami Beach, Susan Fleming is talking about her friends who help feed the homeless cats. "She's a nut," Fleming says of one. Yes, Fleming acknowledges that her cats kill birds, and this makes her uncomfortable. "I love all animals equally. And there's no doubt that a well-fed cat will continue to hunt. But what's the alternative? Do you want to kill all these animals, too?" Fleming has been feeding strays for 12 years, taking over from "two little old ladies who died." She is now middle-aged, and she hopes that someone "will take over for me when I can't go on." But she does not just feed cats. Fleming and her 100 friends call themselves SoBe Spay-Neuter Inc. In two years, they have sterilized 2,000 of South Beach's estimated 10,000 strays, notching each altered cat's ear to record it. Fleming says the result is a shrinking stray cat population in Miami Beach, an observation shared by city officials. Still, Fleming has no illusion about the colonies dying away even if she controls their reproduction. Others keep coming. People discard cats like rubbish. People share their houses and yards with cats for years and never truly claim them. People move away and leave the cats behind. If not for such people, cats by the long ton would go hungry, get sick, die. Or be killed. Los Angeles took in 25,609 cats last year. For lack of adoptive homes, 80%, or 20,375, were killed. Nationwide, the toll reaches millions.

# posted by Medical Information : 3:51 AM