‘Take them out of town’ about cats was a ‘mis-wording’
~by Victoria Riley, GreeneCountyNewsOnline
Jefferson mayor Matt Gordon averted what could have been a very heated discussion about unowned cats at the July 14 city council meeting, saying the document sent to the council titled “Cat policy for discussion” isn’t a policy yet, but notes of something the council is continuing to work on.
“While it is notes, we realize there’s some wording in there that leaves things up for interpretation,” Gordon said.
The policy “notes” included allowing a property owner who catches a cat on his property “to do with the cat as they see fit.” “Take them out of town” appears three times in the notes, as well as “removed from city limits.” “Humane euthanasia” appears five times. There are no references to trap-neuter-release (T-N-R).
Gordon said at the meeting, “From the very get-go when we started talking about this…we’re talking about humanely treating these animals. Where it says ‘take them out of town,’ that refers to a barn cat program we’ve talked about. It doesn’t specifically say it here, but these are notes, ideas down on paper.”
He said people had “jumped to a conclusion” that the policy suggested taking cats out to the country. “That’s never what we’ve been about,” Gordon said. “Yes, we’re talking about humane euthanasia and T-N-R. We’re trying to get something honed down that works for everybody.”
Aside from Dave Sloan saying 25 minutes into the discussion that the references to taking cats out of town was a “mis-wording,” Darren Jackson was the only council member to speak. Council member Matt Wetrich, who has been very vocal about his desire to decrease the number of community cats because of the harm they sometimes do to songbirds, said nothing. Harry Ahrenholtz and Pat Zmolek also said nothing during the hour-long discussion.
Jackson and Sloan are on the council’s cat committee. Jackson has suggested T-N-R in the past. He read from a prepared statement, saying he favors some form of T-N-R, calling it “a viable alternative to doing nothing.”
He said the “cat problem could and should be solved with responsible pet ownership. People who do not spay or neuter and keep their pets under control are being irresponsible and they are the problem, period.”
Jackson suggested the city should support a T-N-R program in some way for at least two years. He’s against a policy that gives tacit permission to euthanize domestic animals. He’d also suggests rehoming as many cats as possible to farms, but those cats would be altered first.
Linn Price of Animal Protection and Education (APE) had done T-N-R of three colonies – about 50 cats, but not 100 percent of them – before the Covid-19 pandemic reached Iowa. She was using grant funds obtained by People for Animal Welfare Society (PAWS). PAWS also helped facilitate contact with the residents feeding the colonies. The grant funding dried up with the pandemic. However, no more kittens have been born in two of the three colonies.
Price estimated the 50 cats is one-fourth to one-third of the community cats in Jefferson.
Tom Colvin, chief executive officer of the Animal Rescue League of Iowa, spoke at the meeting. Based on the comments of Gordon, Jackson, and PAWS volunteer Angela Milakovich, Colvin said the council “is most of the way to coming up with something… You have all the elements… I don’t think we had the buy-in in Des Moines that we see here.”
He said based on his experience in Des Moines, T-N-R works. He suggested the council create a task force if it wants to see effective change.
He also suggested the council use the expertise of the ARL, APE, and Alley Cat Allies in developing a T-N-R program.
Vanessa Heenan, director of the Boone County Humane Society, also spoke and offered to help with a T-N-R program. She said colony caretakers should be given an affordable way to have the cats they feed microchipped. She said Jefferson is at a disadvantage having to rely solely of volunteers in its animal welfare issues.
Heenan and Price both said an advantage to a T-N-R program is that cats are vaccinated while they’re being altered, and that only healthy animals are released. Should an altered cat bite a human, there’s assurance the cat is not carrying rabies.
Two colony feeders spoke at the meeting. Kathy Cranston said she’s very thankful that APE and PAWS helped her get some of the cats she feeds altered. She enjoys the outside cats, but prefers altering to the fate some of the cats meet. “I’d rather have them not born than get hit by a car in the street or get sick,” she said.
Jean Meiners was emotional as she explained how feeding one stray cat evolved into feeding many cats. She said people about two blocks from her lost a yellow cat. Two weeks later, a stray, skinny, yellow cat showed up at her house. “I couldn’t get close to it, so I put out food. It hung out for a little, and I still couldn’t get close to it, and in the meantime, other stray cats showed up. They were not in real good shape, either. I didn’t have the heart to pull the food. Maybe I should have, but I couldn’t,” she said.
One of the cats ended up having kittens. She asked PAWS to take it, but the cat was “spitty and hissy,” Meiners said, and PAWS wouldn’t accept it. The majority of the cats she feeds now are descendants of that cat. “Had the trap-neuter-release program been in place at that time, I wouldn’t have the situation I’m in. So not only do you have to get one (T-N-R program) started, you have to continually fund it. It has to be a year-long and an ongoing process. It will probably cost a lot to begin with, but then as the cats die off there will be fewer and fewer. I don’t care to see neighborhood justice for these cats,” she said.
The discussion ended without naming a “next step” in the process.
