OGDEN — Weber State University may need to start looking for a new mascot.

At Friday’s WSU Block Party, tender-hearted volunteers were crusading at one booth for what they see as a grave injustice on campus: the treatment of Weber State’s wild cats.

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No, not “wildcats,” one word — as in the school’s mascot — but “wild cats,” two words. As in feral felines. Community kittens and cats. Stray animals.

A small poster at the Block Party booth explained the basic idea behind the relatively new WSU Cat Club:

• Do you like cats?

• Do you spend way too much time watching cat videos on the internet?

• Do you want to volunteer and make a difference?

Susan Foss is secretary for the engineering department at WSU and an admitted “crazy cat lady.”

“I have two cats, but I’d love to have 10,” she confesses.

Because city ordinances won’t let her have more than two?

“No, my husband won’t,” she says with a laugh.

RELATED: Feral cat trap and neuter program cuts local shelters’ euthanasia rates

Foss is also the adviser for the Cat Club — not to be confused with the well-known club that raises money for university athletics.

“We couldn’t call ourselves the Wildcat Club,” Foss shrugs. “That name was already taken.”

The WSU Cat Club has been a sort of loose organization the last couple of years, sporting about 20 members or so. Foss and other cat lovers are now trying to formally organize the new club.

Helping Foss at the WSU Cat Club booth on Friday was Aimee Smith, a WSU staff member in academic support and a master’s student in English.

“We take care of the community cats on campus,” Smith explained. “We’ve been unofficially taking care of them for a very long time.”

Indeed, it’s estimated that volunteers at the school have been feeding the stray cats there since the mid-1970s.

Today, Foss estimates the Ogden campus is home to between 12 and 15 wild, or feral, cats — although she prefers the more politically correct “community cats.” That’s down from much larger numbers in past decades, and about 30 cats just a year ago.

The drop in cat numbers is partly due to a Trap-Neuter-Return effort by the WSU Cat Club, assisted by Best Friends Animal Society in Utah. The cats are live trapped, vaccinated, neutered and returned to the wild.

“Their numbers are shrinking because they’re supposed to,” Foss said. “They’re not reproducing.”

But Foss said dealing with the community cats issue takes more than just fixing them.

“You can’t just spay and neuter them,” she said. “You have to feed and shelter them, too.”

And that’s where the WSU Cat Club comes in. The group currently operates two shelter/feeding stations on campus — one outside the Engineering Technology building, and one on WSU property near the 36th Street trailhead.

They used to have a third station in the hills above Stewart Stadium, but a “cat fight” of sorts with the university’s Facilities Management eliminated that location.

“I’d established a feeding station in the hills above the stadium, in an attempt to draw them away from the stadium,” Foss said. “We had a great compound in the trees up there last year. But then, one day, all the feeding stations and shelters up there were just gone.”

Foss says their club hasn’t seen much support from the university’s administration, and Facilities Management has been “unhelpful.”

“The administration wanted them gone,” Foss said of the cats. “They said the poop was a health hazard on the football field, and they said the cats had destroyed the athletic equipment.”

But Foss disputes those claims. And she thinks there’s another reason for fewer wild cats on campus.

“The stadium guys, I suspect, are trapping them and getting rid of them,” she said.

The WSU Cat Club is currently circulating a petition asking for the return of the feeding stations and shelters in the trees above the stadium. A Facebook post collected about 600 signatures in just three weeks, according to Foss, and as of mid-morning at Friday’s Block Party, they’d collected another 50 petition signatures at their booth.

What’s more, that morning they’d gotten about 20 people to sign up for the WSU Cat Club.

One of those new recruits is Cydney Hall, a theater education major from West Point. She signed the petition, and joined the club.

“I love cats — I have one at home that’s my baby,” Hall said. “I think it’s wonderful they’re taking care of these cats, and I would absolutely love to help feed the cats.”

Foss and Smith say they just want permission to re-establish that shelter and feeding station in the hills above the stadium, so the cats will stay away from the football facilities.

“By removing our feeding station, they’re actually encouraging the cats to hang out at the stadium,” Foss said.

And you’ve got to admit: The optics of this thing don’t look particularly good for a place known as the home of the Weber State Wildcats. You’d think the school could show a little compassion for the actual wild cats on campus — that, or at least change its mascot to something a little less cat-friendly.

Weber State Bulldogs, anyone?

Contact Mark Saal at 801-625-4272, or msaal@standard.net. Follow him on Twitter at @Saalman. Friend him on Facebook at facebook.com/MarkSaal.