Mountain House Feral Cat Rescue officials estimate between 1,000 and 2,000 feral cats roam the town. Vice President Bryan Harrison said the money allocated Wednesday, Sept. 12, from either the community service district’s general fund or parks and recreation fund would pay for veterinarian costs to pay or neuter the wild cats, which would prevent them from breeding and the population from growing.
“We’re very excited about having the district support us in such a way,” Harrison said. “They obviously support our commitment to what we’re doing.”
Harrison said the money would pay for about 100 cats. He said the rescue group, formed in May, will be aggressive with a trap and release program during the fall and winter to try and lower the spring kitten population.
Director Andy Su said during the meeting the money could help prevent a larger problem with wild cats down the road.
“The purpose is to support this group,” Su said. “It is an issue and, if we start, the less of an issue it’s going to be in one, two, three years.”
By law, the district is not allowed to use public funds for private efforts, so the board determined effort fell under one of the community service district’s 18 separate governmental powers — pest and weed abatement.
Attorney Daniel Schroeder, who represents the district, did not challenge the board’s assertion that the expenditure falls under its purview.
According to Director Jim Lamb, the money would come out of one of two money sources — the general fund, or the special tax that helps pay for parks and recreation. He argued the latter of the two funds would apply because the cats would be trapped in public areas that include parks, such as the community creek.
The board instructed staff to create a memorandum of understanding between the district and the rescue group, so the funds would not be directly given to volunteers.
Lamb said in a telephone interview Friday, Sept. 14, that the money is “not guaranteed.”
“We’re authorizing to spend up to $5,000 in this fiscal budget,” Lamb said. “The details of the MOU will determine how it will be reimbursed.”
Harrison said his group is working with community services district Development Manager Morgan Groover to coordinate a newsletter and kitten adoption fair planned in the near future at the Mountain House Fire Station, 911 Tradition St.
“The vote of confidence from the board that they would get involved like that says a lot to us,” Harrison said.
For information: 597-8150.
• Contact Denise Ellen Rizzo at 830-4225 or drizzo@tracypress.com.
At a glance
• WHAT: Mountain House Community Services District board of directors meeting
• WHEN: 7 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 12
• WHERE: Michael Forbes McGrew Board Room, 230 S. Sterling Drive
• DETAILS: President Bernice King Tingle and directors Celeste Farron, Jim Lamb, Jass Singh and Andy Su were present.
but I totally agree with the rest of your post! People are totally to blame...I'm getting the cats in the neighborhood fixed as I can catch them...I've adopted 2, who were young enough to "save." The rest are already adapted to the out of doors...and honestly, help with rodent control in town. There ARE enough predators, be they coyotes, owls or car tires (sadly on that last one) to keep a cat population in check...but only if humans do their part and spay/neuter. Then, we can have a semi-natural balance...with the cats getting rid of the vermin and the wildlife controlling the cat numbers.
Rats caused bubonic plague and black plague...and people of the time stupidly killed dogs and cats to halt the spread...only to watch the plagues prosper.
Spay and neuter folks...that way if you suffer something unfortunate and ditch your pets...at least they won't breed like rabbits!
FACT: Trap & Kill failed because cats cannot be trapped faster than they exponentially breed out of control.
FACT: Trap & Sterilize (TNR) is an even bigger abject failure because these man-made ecological disasters cannot be trapped faster than they exponentially breed out of control, and they also continue the cruelly annihilate all native wildlife (from the smallest of prey up to the top predators that are starved to death), and the cats continue to spread many deadly diseases that they carry today -- FOR WHICH THERE ARE NO VACCINES AGAINST THEM. Many of which are even listed as bioterrorism agents. (Such as Tularemia and The Plague -- Yes, people have already died from cat-transmitted plague in the USA. No fleas nor rats even required. The cats themselves carry and transmit the plague all on their own.)
FACT: Hunted To Extinction (or in this case, extirpation of all outdoor cats) is the ONLY method that is faster than a species like cats can exponentially out-breed and out-adapt to. Especially a man-made invasive species like these cats that can breed 2-4X's faster than any naturally occurring cat-species.
LOL, hunt to extinction? Lol.
FACT: When researching over 100 of the most "successful" TNR programs worldwide, JUST ONE trapped more than 0.4%. Oregon's 50,000 TNR'ed cats (the highest rate I found) is 4.9% of all ferals in their state. Yet, by applying population growth calculus on the unsterilized 95.1% they will have trapped only 0.35% of all cats in their state sometime this year. <0.4% is a far cry from the required 80%-90% to be the least bit effective.
FACT: During all this investigation I have discovered something that is unfaltering without fail. Something that you can bet your very life on and win every last time. That being -- IF A TNR CAT-HOARDER IS TALKING THEN THEY ARE LYING. 100% guaranteed!
I tried feeding one of the shot-dead cats on my land to the last few starving opossum (under my care, almost all the rest of my native wildlife starved to death from cats destroying all their food sources). Those opossum promptly died from some disease in that cat-meat. Alarming -- in that opossum, due to their cooler body temperatures, cannot contract nor transmit many common diseases, not even rabies. They are one of the most disease-free animals in N. America. (Quite an admirable species when you learn about them.) Yet something in that cat-meat was able to kill them all. Cats truly are complete and total wastes of flesh. They can't even be used to safely feed wild animals. Leaving any of these invasive-species cats out in nature, alive OR dead, is no better than intentionally poisoning your native wildlife to death.
PLEASE dispose of them safely and sanitarily.