HOW TO MAKE A CAT TRAP 



By James Silver, Associate Biologist, and Frank N. Jarvis, Biological Aide, 

 Division of Predatory-Animal and Rodent Control, Bureau of Biological 

 Survey 



STRAY or vagrant cats are abandoned house cats, or their off- 

 spring, that have been left unfed by their owners and thus forced 

 to gain a precarious living by hunting and by scavenging in garbage 

 cans, on dumps, and in similar places. These stray cats abound in 

 every city, town, and rural community, and are the most common 

 carnivorous mammals in many places far removed from human 

 habitation. As they are largely nocturnal in their habits and hence 

 seldom are seen, it is not generally realized that they are so numerous. 

 More than 50 stray cats were caught in one trap set in only two loca- 

 tions in the suburbs of an eastern city during the course of 18 months, 

 and there were still many remaining. One humane society put to 

 death nearly a million vagrant cats in New York City in four years. 



Vagrant cats are usually hungry, mangy, and diseased, and quickly 

 revert to their wild habits and characteristics. They are rapacious, 

 cautious, and unsocial. They mingle with valued cats and contami- 

 nate them by transmitting disease and parasites, and have been known 

 also to disseminate diseases among human beings. Stray cats often 

 become a nuisance by filling the night air with sleep-preventing yowls. 

 They become skilled hunters and seriously menace song, insectivorous, 

 and game birds, rabbits, squirrels, and other small forms of beneficial 

 wild life, as well as poultry. 



As a measure of public safety and to assist in conserving valuable 

 bird and other small-animal life, and as an act of mercy to the cats 

 themselves, all unowned cats should be destroyed. They can be 

 readily caught in a well-constructed and baited trap. The one 

 described in this leaflet has proved satisfactory and is simple in 

 construction. It consists of a box with a drop door, held up by a 

 projecting wire, one end of which is attached to a false floor, or 

 treadle. The weight of the cat on the treadle beyond the fulcrum 

 pulls back the wire and releases the door. 



Anyone who can use a square, a saw, and a hammer can make the 

 trap from the following instructions, using well-seasoned, dressed, 

 pine lumber three-fourths of an inch thick : 



The following materials are necessary for building the trap : 



1 12-inch board 14 feet long. 

 1 lVj-inch strip 7 feet long. 

 1 %-inch strip 2 feet long. 

 20 inches of No. 3 gage wire. 



2 small screw eyes. 



1 piece of 2 or 3 mesh wire netting 

 6 inches square. 



Cut the 12-inch board to make the following pieces 



1 treadle board 27 inches long. 

 1 drop door 13^ inches long. 

 1 end board lO 1 /^ inches long. 



1 bottom board 30 inches long. 



1 top board 28 1 /1> inches long. 



2 side boards 29 % inches long. 



Cut the 1%-inch strip to make the following pieces : 



2 drop-door guides 24 inches long. I 1 fulcrum piece for treadle 10% inches 



2 drop-door guides 11% inches long. | long. 



Cut the % -inch strip to make 2 center guide strips 1 foot long. 

 Cut or plane a quarter of an inch from the edge of the treadle 

 board so that it will move inside of the trap without binding. Cut 

 2 



