I actually worked for a vet that had that same attitude, so I'm not in as much doubt as everyone else.

Be aware, if you get the law involved, it's likely most, if not all, the cats will simply be euthanized.

This is every animal lover's nightmare, this is what makes some of us cry at night, so as long as you love animals you will keep encountering it in some way or another. I have not yet learned how to deal with my emotions about unaltered animlas or roaming animals. On a much smaller scale, I am experiencing the same thing you are. My upstairs neighbors have two cats, who would be about a year old now, who are outside 24/7 and unneutered. There is nothing I can do, because if I call the city they will be picked up, the clods upstairs will probably not feel they are worth the impound fee, and the cats may end up dead. I have absolutely no compunction about stealing an irresponsible person's pet and rehoming it, but since these people live upstairs there's no way they wouldn't see their cats in my window or in the carrier as I take them back and forth to be neutered, etc. My only hope is that they really truly are looking for another place to live, and when they do I will snatch their cats at that time, get them neutered and vaccinated, and find a new home for them. The irony is, they supposedly haven't moved because they're having trouble finding a landlord that will let them have cats. They don't "have" cats now, they just merely feed cats! My son mentioned he's surprised they haven't just moved off and left them, but I haven't ruled out that eventuality in my mind.

Anyway, I'm sorry I couldn't be any more help. This is an overwhelming problem for us animal lovers as a whole; it is especially difficult when you are the only one willing to do anything about a particular colony of barn cats, and the owner is someone else.

Good luck, and I'll be praying for a solution.