Cats have been hanging around humans since the Egyptians domesticated them 4,000 years ago.

Domesticated means people are responsible for them. So what should we do about the thousands of cats, feral and otherwise, taken in yearly by Collier County’s Domestic Animal Services? Should we kill them or catch, neuter and release them or what?

Many well-meaning humans are dedicated to making these critters comfortable and safe. Some people feed feral cats, hating the fact that last year the county reportedly euthanized about three of every four cats taken in by the shelter.

Here’s my concern: Feral cats live as wild animals, no longer domesticated, yet they’re not part of our natural wildlife.

They are an invasive species, thrust into an eco-system that offers them at best a hardscrabble life. At worst they inflict disease and death on birds and other wild things. Feline predatory instincts preceded the Egyptians’ cat taming trick.

What if we adopted total catch, spay and release?

They would be alive, but what kind of life would that be? Their survival chances probably would be diminished. They could be injured or killed, even eaten by other feral cats not processed by good-hearted humans trying to save them. In short, euthanasia might be more humane than subjecting the altered feral cat to life in a hostile environment.

How about feeding them then, to assist their existence? We don’t feed other invasive species. Do we put out food for pythons abandoned in and around the Everglades? How about iguanas? Why not? Because they’re wild.

We don’t, or shouldn’t, even feed most indigenous species in the wild. I know, we have bird-feeders but that’s to attract them to brighten our environment.

We don’t routinely feed raccoons or opossums, black snakes or burrowing owls. We don’t feed rats or cockroaches or alligators. Why? Because they’re wild.

“It is illegal to feed wildlife,” notes Nancy Richie, environmental specialist for Marco Island. “So if you want them (feral cats) out there, don’t feed them, let them free-range and hunt on their own.”

Richie and other environmentalists worry most about feral cats that prey in protected wildlife areas, such as Rookery Bay and Marco’s Tigertail Beach. Some proponents of catch, neuter and release are skeptical about claims that feral cats pose danger to wildlife.

It’s complicated and emotional for many people, fueled by love for cats or for birds, turtles and other victims of hungry cats in the wild. We have about 88 million pet cats in America and about 75 million dogs and 16 million birds.

Florida has an estimated 9.6 million owned cats and more than 6 million feral cats, reports the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

In spite of conflicting opinions on what to do with feral cats, on one point there may be a consensus: Don’t let your cat go outside without a leash.

Leash laws technically apply to dogs and cats, impractical as that may be.

It’s our fault really, this feral cat problem. Those one-time pets or pets’ descendants are not owned anymore. They are wild animals but without the caché of critters we revere in the wild, nature parks, sanctuaries or zoos.

Feral cats are in a sort of limbo at the mercy of humans. We must deal with them, for our own good and theirs.

E-mail Don Farmer at don@donfarmer.com