How do I drive a mother cat and her kittens away?

This is a question on the quora.com website and I think it was set by a computer (an algorithm) and not by a person because it doesn't make sense. It's too heartless for somebody to ask such a question and if somebody did then the people who moderate the website missed it. So, the question should not be asked in the first place but as it has, I will answer it.

Mother cat and kittens. The photo is for illustrative purposes only. Photo: Pixabay.

You don't drive a mother cat and her kittens away. You take them in and you help them to survive until they can be rehomed or you might even home one or two of them yourself depending upon your circumstances. You would take them to a veterinarian to be checked out. You would make sure that the mother had been spayed and vaccinated. You would check for a microchip.

You would check the kittens' health and depending upon their age you would have them vaccinated and spayed and neutered as well. Yes, it would be an expense in time and money but you have no option. You would do some research about how to raise kittens because it is quite complicated. It is quite a demanding job and you might ask your veterinarian while they are doing the above for some tips. And you might seek help such as from Cats Protection in the UK or an American equivalent.

You might try and rehome them yourself once the kittens were at an age where they could be rehomed. You might take them to a cat rescue centre for them to do it for you as mentioned. There are numerous options but everything you do is designed to ensure that they survive and live as good a life as possible. Nothing you will do will drive them away as asked in the question. Unless of course you are heartless and have psychopathic tendencies.

One minor point comes to mind; there was a story not long ago of a person who mistook the kittens of a bobcat for those of a feral or domestic cat. She took the kittens in and in doing so she probably, inadvertently, took the mother's cubs from her because she might have been out looking for food when the person in question stumbled upon the kittens. Domestic kittens look quite different to bobcat cubs.

The reason why there was a mother cat and kittens in and around your home is because somebody failed to discharge their responsibilities as a cat owner. All stray cats and feral cats are the result of a failure in the human-to-cat relationship. This is another reason why you should not drive away a mother cat and her kittens. It is not their fault that they are there around or on your property. It is the fault of a person, probably a neighbour. So don't blame the cat and drive them away.

You might in fact ask around because you might be able to find the person responsible. We don't know if the cat is a feral or a domestic cat. There will be a big difference in how they are dealt with. Feral cats will be difficult to manage for obvious reasons. You will soon find out.

On an associated topic, if your neighbour's cat is coming onto your property and you don't like it which might be understandable then I would recommend a couple of methods to keep them away which I have written about on a page which you can read by clicking this link.

A lot of people don't like cats on their property. You just have to be sensitive and decent when you deal with them. There should be no poisoning, nothing inhumane should be done to get rid of them. There are numerous reasons for this one of which is that it is illegal to harm a cat even if they are "trespassing" (cats can't trespass legally).

Does the Facebook deletion of Australian newspaper posts affect news from cat rescue?

Australian newspapers on Facebook have lost all their posts as Facebook admin have decided to remove all news activity on their site emanating from Australia over their dispute with the Autralian government who want Facebook to pay for news when it is published on their site.

It is a difficult one to understand because many Australian newspapers are on Facebook voluntarily because it is a way of promoting their businesses. They have quite a hefty Facebook presence in addition to their website presence.

Facebook removes all posts from Australian newspapers on their website

It's quite surprising to visit Australian newspapers such as The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald to see all their posts removed. I doubt whether they have been deleted permanently but they been removed from the Facebook pages of the newspapers and all other Australian newspapers. Therefore there is nothing on their Facebook webpages. It's all gone. Nada.

Animal rescue FB pages?

I wanted to check how far Facebook would go in removing Australian news from their website in this dispute. Where do you stop and start in this process? After all animal rescue organisations have a very large presence on Facebook. They consistently deliver news regarding their world of dog and animal rescue. Things happen in their world and they have to tell their followers what is happening so they can encourage them to adopt their animals.

Well, as expected, and it is nice to see, that these animal rescue webpages are fully functioning and all the posts are intact. There has been no change. Notwithstanding that, I would expect some animal rescue organisations to suffer a negative impact by this. It is hard to visualise when this might happen but perhaps, for example, if a newspaper was referring to a dog or cat as an animal rescue which needs adopting.

The newspapers can no longer put a post on their Facebook page about a cat or dog story that is occurring within an animal rescue organisation because they can't put any post on their Facebook pages. That seems to me to be an example of how Facebook's behaviour might impact animal welfare. This is my prime objective in this discussion.

Example where animal rescue suffers because of FB's ban of Aussie news media on their site

Example: 9 News have a website and a Facebook page. They are many articles on the RSPCA in Australia. Click here to see their list of articles. On Facebook - Nada. Nothing. So they can't promote the work of the RSPCA in Australia. This news media site has 2.4 million followers on Facebook and nothing to show them! Weird. They must be gutted.

Dependence on Facebook questionable

This is a long-standing battle not only between the Australian government but the governments of almost any country. Facebook has engulfed news media. But it seems to me that a lot of people have migrated to Facebook voluntarily because they have a free platform and all the machinery that goes with that. Facebook has some fantastic facilities and software which makes it very attractive as a platform to promote one's organisation or business. But it does mean that all these organisations are dependent upon Facebook. They are not freestanding and independent. They are in partnership with this mega-organisation which is too dominant.

It is not wise, really, to be so dependent upon Facebook administrators and Mr Zuckerberg because how moral is their behaviour? Can you depend upon them to behave morally and with integrity at all stages going into the future both mid and long-term? You're in their hands completely. If they want to delete something you have posted on their website they can delete it and you can't argue about it.

You can't contact them. You can't phone them up. It is a nightmare to try and get them to reverse their decision. There are many thousands of cases like this. In other words a fight with Facebook is a very difficult fight because they are so big, opaque and disdainful of little man or woman who depend upon them. Almost every other organisation is smaller than them.

As mentioned, this battle started between the government of Australia and Facebook because newspapers were losing out on business. Canberra wanted Facebook to pay for news content and Facebook have responded by removing all news content as mentioned from their website. In other words they are playing hardball and it is difficult to know where it will end up.