I have been wrestling with this for a long time now. Everyday, I ride the train to work, and it goes under this bridge in a dismal part of the city. Under the bridge live about 4 homeless men and a cat and from what I can tell, two kittens. From my limited observation, they seem to be well taken care of, given the limited means the men can provide.
Half of me (my emotional side) wants to sneak over at night and take the cats away to another place, far away from this depressing place. I am unable to take them in, but know of a farm 100 miles away that takes cats. On the other hand (my moral side), I ask myself, what right do I have to invade someone's space, even though they are homeless and take what could probably be one of the few things in this world that make these men happy? Who am I to deem whether or not a homeless person is a suitable owner or caretaker of a cat?
Could my "re-locating" them to a "safer" place be even more harmful than allowing them to stay in the location they are currently in? With it becoming gradually colder, I'm assuming the men will be in a shelter on some of the harshest nights, but I wonder about the cats as well. I realize that homelessness is an inevitable part of society and it pains me to see someone without a place to go to. It pains me even more, though to see a homeless animal.