Council drags their paws on the feral cat situation

“I think we could have come up with a common sense way to deal with it, but unfortunately, councillors are more concerned about dogs and dog control problems than cats and cat control problems.”-- Councillor Joy Thorkelson expressing frustration with council after they put aside any concerns over feral cats in the city.

While council has directed city staff to propose a bylaw for pet owners that will breed responsibility for their pets behaviour, the nasty hairball of a question of what to do about feral cats continues to languish unaddressed, as councillors for the most part take a pass on taking charge of the situation…

( from  the blog a town called podunk,  click on the link below to see the entire article atowncalledpodunk.blogspot.com/2 … 4815971806 )-

I remember a year or so ago the Northern View, or Northern Daily—one of those excellent free newspapers had a regular “Word on the street” facilitated by reporter Brooke Ward. She asked a question, and found a few people around the community to answer.

One was about feral cats, and she decided that veteranarian and ex-councillor Paul Kennedy would be a great person to ask. She was right, because he had what I still think is a great solution.

Implement a bylaw that requires cat owners to purchase licenses for their cats, similar to the one in place for dogs. The funds collected would then go towards dealing with the feral cats–to capture, control, spay/neuter(sp), hire more personel–whatever.

Calgary initiated cat liscences a couple of years ago and as far as I can remember, were calling it a success in raising funds to help deal with their cat situation. I’d also like to see it combined with cheap microchipping, so that any cats who lose their ID and get trapped or taken to the SPCA could be returned to their owners after a simple pass of a scanner and a quick phone call.

It’s a nice dream…