‘Kittens are running wild.’ Horde of feral cats takes over California stadium

Feral cats are “having a field day” at the Oakland Coliseum after the absence of humans during the coronavirus pandemic boosted their numbers, officials said.

“And the kittens are running wild,” Henry Gardner, executive director of the Coliseum Authority, which oversees the facility, wrote in a memo, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

“The good news is the rat population has decreased substantially,” Gardner wrote.

The stadium, opened in 1966, serves as the home field for MLB’s Oakland A’s and once housed the NFL’s Raiders before their move to Las Vegas. It’s currently branded as RingCentral Coliseum.

The cats also are a problem at the adjacent Oakland Arena, where the NBA’s Golden State Warriors used to play, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The feral cats number around 30 to 40, Gardner told KRON. While they are not a danger, the cats do pose a public nuisance, he said.

The Oakland Coliseum Alliance plans to work with animal control officers to get the cats adopted or put in shelters, according to the station.

An upcoming meeting of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority lists “cats invasion” as an agenda item, a KGO reporter said on Twitter.

This story was originally published April 13, 2022 at 10:41 AM with the headline "‘Kittens are running wild.’ Horde of feral cats takes over California stadium."