City of Akron kills over 1,000 cats

[VeganMegan]

A year later Akron official calls cat law a success
Monday, June 23, 2003 By The Associated Press

AKRON — The city has trapped and killed more than 1,000 cats in the year since passing a law to euthanize any cat caught off its owner’s property.

The Summit County Animal Shelter staff said 1,685 cats were caught and 1,279 killed — because they were sick, too wild to be domesticated or not claimed or adopted within a five-day window. The rest were adopted.

John Hoffman, the city’s director of customer service, said he gets hate mail from “a small, vocal minority,” but believes most residents favor the effort to control the cat population.

He calls the program a success.

“We have 50 traps available to catch the cats,” said Hoffman, who noted that all were in constant use. “We are getting so many that we have slowed down the capture process ourselves because there is nowhere to house them.”

Citizens for Humane Animal Practices has filed a lawsuit set for trial in September, seeking to end the program.

“Scientific studies have shown that trapping feral cats does nothing to solve the problem,” said Citizens co-chairwoman Deanne Christman-Resch. “Other cats will simply move in to fill the vacuum left by the missing cat.”

Two cats and their offspring can produce 50 cats in 18 months and 300,000 in seven years, humane society sources said.

One alternative she suggested is a trap-neuter-release program. Under the program, feral cats are trapped, spayed or neutered, and then returned to their colony.

The colonies grow smaller as older cats die and kittens are prevented, proponents say.

Donna Wilcox, executive director of Alley Cat Allies, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that serves as a clearinghouse of information about the stray and feral cat population, said places such as San Diego, Orange County, Fla., and Maricopa County, Ariz., have enacted trap-neuter-release policies and seen their population drop.

But Hoffman said trap-neuter-release does not deal with the citizen complaints.

“If we remove the cat, we remove the problem,” he said.

Glen James, executive director of the Summit County Animal Shelter, said trapped cats are observed long enough for shelter workers to determine if they are feral.

A cat is killed if it is deemed feral, looks sick or has a lot of fleas. If the cat is friendly and healthy, it will be held three days to give the owner a chance to claim it. The cat is then put up for adoption for two days. If it is not adopted, it’s euthanized.

Dan Knapp, executive director of the Capital Area Humane Society in Columbus, said Akron’s methods will fail.

“I was surprised to hear what Akron was doing,” he said. “They are welcome to see our program. We spay and release strays but also put many of them up for adoption.

“Frankly, if I would be a taxpayer in Akron, I would be concerned. Trapping and euthanizing is cruel and wasteful. They are using tax money to worsen a problem they are trying to solve.”

[VeganMegan]

For more info on Akron murdering cats see this thread


There is a protest/memorial being held tonight in front of city council/hall.

[herbi]

Originally posted by VeganMegan
A cat is killed if it is deemed feral, looks sick or has a lot of fleas.

WTF?!?!?! FLEAS are justification for execution now?!?! Grrr...
The woman who advocated TNR is right on. Over and over again it has been proven that lethal methods of removal will NOT result in a significant decrease in the population of any "nuisance" mammal! There's always more where they came from... but spayed animals will occupy the territory while not contributing to the population, and if you keep up the spay/neuter efforts, you start to see noticable plateau and then decrease of your population in a few years.

[Dandelion]

Wassup with feral cats. Can somebody explain further?

[jenbizagogo]

http://www.alleycat.org/resources.html

[VeganMegan]

Fufu was a feral cat running the streets of Akron until he hurt himself and showed up bleeding all over my front porch. Now he lives in my art studio and is a nice loving happy housecat.

He still needs a home...I'm going to have to take him to a shelter if I don't find him a home by August. I really hate to do that because he's such a sweet cat (to people, not other cats) but I don't have any other choice. I know a shelter will just kill him. It's been almost 2 years that i've been trying to find him a home but I'm having no luck since he must be an only cat. I don't know what else to do with him.

[jenzie]

Originally posted by VeganMegan
He still needs a home...I'm going to have to take him to a shelter if I don't find him a home by August. I really hate to do that because he's such a sweet cat (to people, not other cats) but I don't have any other choice. I know a shelter will just kill him. It's been almost 2 years that i've been trying to find him a home but I'm having no luck since he must be an only cat. I don't know what else to do with him.

Have you tried contacting Best Friends Animal Sanctuary? They're located in Utah, and may be able to take Fufu. It's worth a shot! Also, are there rescue groups in your area? They might be willing to take him, offer him a new foster home, something...

Good luck!! Let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

[VeganMegan]

Yep! Best friends said they only take animals in high profile cases.



The only no-kill shelter in my area just got shut down. I called them a few times before and they always say "we are currently not accepting any more animals"

[jenbizagogo]

Just and idea, but how about featuring Fufu in your vegan zine?

[VeganMegan]

Ha! We're thinking alike! I have a whole page in it for/about him complete with his cute little furry cat body.


Fooey playing with his mouse

[jenbizagogo]

Originally posted by VeganMegan
Ha! We're thinking alike! I have a whole page in it for/about him complete with his cute little furry cat body.

Gosh, like I've said before...I'd snatch that little cutie up in a minute if I didn't already have a Cookie-wookie! I hope you can find a loving home for Fufu!

[Sacredlrose]

Megan there are quite a few low kill shelters around if you are willing to travel. Cat welfare http://www.catwelfareohio.com/ . Usually all shelters have a message saying they are full and you usually have to call the shelter manager and get on a list, especially for cats. Lists in spring time are quite long so if you wanted to bring him to want you'd want to call ahead. There is also friends for life http://www.theanimalhaven.org/

[VeganMegan]

Cat lovers still fighting law
Citizens for Humane Animal Practices battling to have it eliminated, but council members say results favorable
By Julie Wallace
Beacon Journal staff writer

Bob Kaiser knew when his 6-year-old cat, Hands, didn't return home one evening that something was wrong.

Hands -- a chubby tiger-striped cat easily identifiable by the extra toes on his front paws -- rarely went missing for a whole night. The fixed feline made fast breaks for the door whenever it opened, but he rarely strayed far and always came back in time for dinner.

That was until that one night late last summer, when, Kaiser later learned, Hands strayed into a neighbor's yard and was lured into a baited cat trap. Kaiser rescued Hands the next day from the Summit County Animal Shelter -- making Hands among the lucky few.

It was a year ago Wednesday that Akron's law allowing free-roaming cats to be captured went into effect. Through April 30, the most recent numbers available, 1,685 cats were captured, with only 406 being rescued or adopted.

The remaining 1,279 were killed. Those include diseased or feral cats, kittens captured before they were weaned and those cats that weren't picked up within five days -- the limit the crowded shelter keeps them.

Kaiser is no fan of the law -- saying he looks around his North Hill neighborhood and sees many other ways the city could be better than by capturing cats.

So he and his cat are planning to move to the Portage Lakes.

``The cat law was kind of the last straw. The crime, the area -- it's just sliding downhill,'' Kaiser said. ``I have a friend who lives near the Portage Lakes, and we can get a little nature and nobody will be out there trapping him.''

The law -- passed unanimously by the City Council after years of on-and-off discussions to address what council members said was an inability to deal with the many complaints they received about stray cats -- satisfied many citizens fed up with frolicking felines.

But it provoked a groundswell of anger from local animal lovers, who mobilized to get the law rescinded. They formed a political action committee known asCitizens for Humane Animal Practices,bombarded the council and administration with letters and e-mail and filed a lawsuit that is set for trial in September.

Early attempts at negotiation -- some council members were willing to work with the group to adjust the law -- fell apart when the group dug in its heels and said it would settle for nothing less than elimination of the law.

The group's tactics soon turned the divide into an unbreachable impasse.

They posted a transcript on their Web site of a council discussion about the legislation at the end of a two-day retreat when weary council members proffered jokes about being served cats at Chinese restaurants and repeating error-riddled numbers about the law's cost.

Councilman John Conti, D-at large, said the council went with the most limited lawit could -- it simply added cats into the existing dog legislation and avoided addressing how many cats a resident could own, for instance -- and the results have satisfied more people than they've angered.

As proof, he cited the 100 calls a week that the customer service division is averaging from residents requesting cat traps.

``It wasn't like we sat around and said, `We don't have anything better to do today, so let's pass a cat ordinance,' '' Conti said. ``What we were doing was responding to our constituents.''

Councilwoman Mary Ellen McAvoy, D-7, said council members knew it would be a hot-button issue, but they no longer could ignore complaints they were receiving.

``I've had many residents comment to me that they appreciate the law or it's made a difference. They don't know if the cats are being picked up or the owners are becoming more responsible, but they are happy,'' McAvoy said.

Deanne Christman-Resch, co-chairwoman of CHAP, said the council's view is shortsighted because the only thing the law is accomplishing is the killing of cats. It isn't addressing the stray population, because the only method of doing that proven effective is what is labeled TNR -- trap, neuter and release, she said.

That program culls neighborhood volunteers who monitor the stray population and make certain any new cats that pop up are spayed or neutered. That way, the population will drop through attrition.

But trapping and killing some of the cats won't work, she said, because those not killed will reproduce to capacity, she said.

Donna Wilcox, executive director of Alley Cat Allies, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that serves as a clearinghouse of information about the stray and feral cat population, said places such as Orange County, Fla., San Diego, Calif., and Maricopa County, Ariz., have enacted TNR policies and seen their population -- and their costs -- drop.

InCape May, N.J., the number of complaints about feral cats dropped 80 percent after it adopted a TNR program. In Maricopa County, the cost of dealing with stray cats dropped from $61 to trap and kill each cat to $22.50 to trap, spay or neuter and release them.

Akron -- which pays Summit County to house and dispose of the cats -- paid $18,431 through April 30. By comparison, it paid the county $33,150 during the same period to house and dispose of trapped dogs.

``(Trapping and killing) has not been successful anywhere they've tried it,'' Wilcox said. ``Why would it suddenly work in Akron?''

The administration soon plans to introduce legislation to the City Council to provide low-cost spaying and neutering services for cats belonging to low-income residents as well as microchipping for identification purposes.

A good deal of time went into crafting the proposal, including consulting with area veterinarians and animal rights groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said David Lieberth, deputy mayor.

Christman-Resch said CHAP has had two low-cost spay and neuter clinics and has two more scheduled. They've been overwhelmed by the number of owners who want their female cats spayed.

Lieberth said the city has received significant numbers of comments both favoring the law and opposing it.

``We've tried to be both responsible and responsive to animal rights groups who have shown they want to work with us,'' Lieberth said. ``We haven't been responsible to people who have sued us.''

In the meantime, three local volunteer groups -- Friends of Pets, Hearts and Paws and Paws and Prayers -- have signed contracts with Summit County allowing them to adopt cats scheduled to be killed for $10 each.

And at Kaiser's home on Dayton Place, you'll find a cat trap in the back yard. It's not that he's joined the other side. Rather, he's using it as a training method -- working with Hands so that he'll avoid being trapped in the future.

``It's like kitty combat training,'' Kaiser said.