Following a discussion at their meeting May 12th, the Summit County Council has asked their staff to look at a community cat program that could help monitor and reduce the population of feral felines.
County Council Member Roger Armstrong said they need more information on how the program works in other areas of the country, and how other local ordinances allow it.
Summit County’s animal control staff didn’t recommend the idea, in a report that listed the “pros” and “cons”. But Armstrong said it seemed to him that the “cons” were issues that already exist.
“Feral cats have some impact on bird populations, on wildlife. The nuisance is they may create the risk of transmission of diseases to domestic pets, those kinds of things. Those are already in place. And we don’t have an active program of, nor do we have the resources to patrol the community and try to identify feral cats and take them in. They’re taken in, essentially on a complaint basis when they’re creating a nuisance. And the ones that are taken in then wind up being handed off generally to Nuzzles and Company or services like that.”
The Council heard from eight people, who all supported the program. Lindsay Ortega, the Executive Director of Nuzzles and Co. and a county resident, said her organization is willing to carry out what’s called a “TNR” program—that is “Trap Neuter Release.”
“Our clinic would perform all spays and neuters, deworming and vaccination of feral cats for their release back to their habitat at no cost to the county. If needed, Nuzzles and Co. also would take responsibility for returning cats after their veterinary visits. Again, we would offer this at no additional cost to the county. We’re happy to offer this and partner with the county in this life-saving endeavor.”
And Bonita Vanderkooi said that back in her home state of New Jersey, a similar program was very successful.
“The people in the community loved it. The cats were saved. We knocked down the instances of euthanasia of the cats. And it was just a hugely successful program. And all the experts on it can give you all the statistics on how it works. But people were thrilled with it. And there’s enough people in the community like-minded that are willing to go out there and help with these causes.”
Armstrong said that Utah law calls for sponsors or caretakers to process the feral cats, but in some respects the legislation isn’t clear.
“Initially it’s clear that sponsor would take in the cats, it would perform the spay and neutering, the vaccinations. We also heard that cats that are vaccinated for rabies initially often retain the resistance to rabies over a ten-year period. I don’t know if that includes, if that’s just development of the disease or the ability to transmit the disease. We need to take a look at that. But what is unclear about the state statute is what that sponsor-caretaker function looks like after that initial phase. So they go through that spay-neutering-vaccination process. And then state law says those cats have to be returned to the place where they were taken in.”
He said that local farm owners can find the animals useful, as barn cats for instance. But if they’re not sterilized, problems can emerge.
“Obviously the ranchers, I think, tend to find them useful. What they don’t find useful are the offspring. And we heard somebody testify yesterday that there are cases of kittens being killed because they don’t serve a utility purpose. They’re just not kept around. They can’t get them adopted out. So that’s something we would want to avoid. But yeah, I think there are those in the community that see some benefit from feral cats out there, as long as they’re not creating the nuisances that we fear.”
Summit County Council Member Roger Armstrong.
