Feeding Feral Cats...

 Just, don't do it.

Nevermind the birds, rabbits and other wildlife they will prey on to eat, there are plenty of other reasons not to "help" feral creatures grow stronger and gain an unnatural advantage against their prey.

Namely, it's not easy to later "tame" them except by arduous personal and continual effort. You can't shift this work off on others, the way you can -- parental care to the state, say. (and who would want to do that to their parents?) Think best needs of the child, the elder, the feral creature in the wild... (Each has their own needs and society has established ways of providing for them, to maintain their strength and allow them to prolong their lives, naturally. Respect.)

Those who lack common-sense foresight of the natural world (they used to kill kittens at birth -- I am reminded in William Maxwells's story They Came Like Swallows, not out of cruelty but because it's well known what happens when cats breed without care, without humans to continue providing for them, a lifetime commitment when you begin to take a pet...) do not yet understand the cruel death they are often simply postponing for the half wild, now dependent creatures moving between the true state of wildlife and the domesticated world.  Learn what the ages teach:  you simply cannot feed the wildlife, no matter how cue the little fawn looks or what you've "named" the critter -- without sentencing it to a painful, non-natural eventual death.  Witness:
"The couple comes, the transfer takes place. The worry never ends, of course. If it doesn't work out, then the couple will be returning the two girls to us. That's the deal. We'll keep on trying until there is a good fit. But for at least tonight, we are two cats down here, at the farmette. Five of the teenagers remain. So many have been lost to the great outdoors and to speeding cars! We can only hope that the remaining guys will stay safe." *

But hopes without firm girders of support are of no relief. And all the promises in the world are no match for the truth in reality. Stop feeding feral animals, today.  Let them learn to make their way, without your artificial, and temporary, support.  You will encourage and facilitate less to easily breed. and take better care of the pets that you do adopt and make a lifelong home for.

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* No, this is not from the Maxwell story.

/PSA, longtime coming, over.