Mary Alice Reporting –
Feral cats were once again brought up at Uhrichsville’s council meeting, with the mayor asking for the matter to be in committee, a resident stating complaints again, and members of the Trap, Neuter, Release program emphasizing the work they do.
At a previous meeting, resident Chuck Marty brought the issues of homeless cats to the attention of council, who agreed that action needed to be taken.
Councilman and acting Council President Matt Fox said they are a nuisance destroying property.
“We’ve had this issue for four and a half years, as far as I know that I’ve been on council. I mean it hasn’t really gotten any better as far as breeding population has but we still have the cats throughout and that’s what we’re looking into. It’s going to committee, we’re going to discuss it, and talk over some ordinances and what not.”
TNR representative Terry Edwards pointed out that they are a 501C3 and have been making headway in the city.
“Since 2022, when you all allowed us to come in, we have done, my letter says 119 cats it’s actually 126. I wrote this before we took this week’s cats up. We found homes for approximately 25 to 30 of those cats. In 2023, you did donate $1,500 but we spent a total of $6,307, so Tusc TNR covered $4,800. Everything we get in, every dime goes straight to the vet clinic, straight to the cat care.”
Edwards noted that feral felines is caused by humans who drop off or release the cats, who can get pregnant at four months old, and it snowballs from there.
“One thing I’d like to really impress upon you all is this is a human caused problem, and as far as saying whoever’s feeding them needs to contain them, they’re not their cats but they’re doing this out of the kindness of their hearts. Feeding bans, they don’t work. What they will do is cause problems you do not have right now. If you enact feeding bans or criminalize people for feeding and caring for these cats that someone else has dumped, they will still go and search of food.”
Marty brought the issue up again, saying he has received letters from resident’s complaining about feral felines and said TRN members are not from Uhrichsville.
“And we’re tired of people coming from out of the community, telling us how we’re going to run our town with these cats. This is Uhrichsville and we have to deal with it ourselves. They’ve had four years to straighten this out. It’s worse now than ever, everybody knows it, so let’s get on the ball and get it taken care of. They don’t have any say what we do here.”
“Let me interject with a minute Chuck,” said Councilman Matt Fox. “TNR they are helping out the community. They don’t have to live here.”
Marty added that “they’ve tried to help out the community. It’s not helping.”
That’s when Edwards spoke up to Marty, “you’ve never called me and asked me for services in that neighborhood. I’m sorry but that is a valid point.”
The next step is for the Safety, Health, and Service Committee to look at options. Edwards noted her interest in attending these meetings and pointed out that if council would vote to criminalize people for feeding or caring for stray cats, then TNR would pull out of the community.
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