FESTUS — City officials are cracking down on the feeding of stray cats here after large colonies have started to draw complaints from residents.
And cat advocates are in an uproar.
Last week, Festus City Council members passed a bill that prohibits the feeding and watering of stray cats. Critics immediately blasted the city, saying the tactic won’t work and won’t result in fewer cats.
“Feral cats are my favorite,” said Lauren Kranisky, who lives in nearby Crystal City and has been working with stray cat populations in the area for years. “It is not their fault that they have been basically abandoned.”
Controlling stray cats is a prickly problem for municipal officials. Adult females can have up to four litters a year, with about six kittens a litter. Kittens can start becoming pregnant at about 5 months old. Small groups, when fed and cared for, can get big quickly.
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But Festus cat advocates are suggesting a different solution. Municipalities across the region have turned to a lesser-known tactic, often orchestrated by advocates and volunteers: catch-and-release programs that capture the strays, neuter or spay them, then put them back in the neighborhoods from which they came. ӣƵ, ӣƵ County and St. Charles County all have used so-called trap-neuter-return programs to curb overpopulation. Often, an ear of each cat is clipped to signal it’s been sterilized.
Michael Christopher, Festus’ public works director, said he’s fielded complaints recently about free-roaming cats who gather in large numbers where people regularly put out food for them. That’s led to public health concerns, he said. It’s impossible to know if stray cats have been vaccinated.
And unvaccinated animals can spread disease, he warned, especially to children.
A $250 fine
Christopher told the Post-Dispatch he received complaints about cats from two residents in early June.
He said the cats gather in several locations in Festus, a town of about 12,000 residents 34 miles south of ӣƵ on Interstate 55 in Jefferson County: on the northeast side, in the center of town by Main Street, and by the school district’s campus.
And some people are letting their domesticated cats wander around the city and mingle with the feral cats, he said.
On July 14, the council met, boosted pet adoption fees and passed the new law outlawing caring for the strays.
“This is more focused on some areas of town where (residents) allowing their cats out of the house, into other people’s property, into other people’s buildings, and it’s starting to attract other unsavory things that we really prefer not get started in the city of Festus,” Christopher said at the meeting that night.
Festus residents are only allowed three registered cats or three dogs per household, with a max of four pets under city code, and failure to register a pet can carry a $10 fine. Any cat that has an owner and is registered with the city is not a feral cat, Christopher said.
Under the new rules, the first offense for feeding feral cats will result in a warning, the second offense will be met with a fine under $100 and a third offense will carry a fine under $250.
Festus resident Ashley Harned called the ban “inhumane.” She is part of a group willing to help trap, neuter and release the cats.
“(That’s) what the city should be looking for and pushing for, not taking away these cats’ food and fining people for having love and compassion for these cats,” she told the Post-Dispatch.
Harned said she hopes to gather advocates at next week’s council meeting, present the catch-and-release option and ask them to drop the new ordinance.
Kranisky, the feral cat lover, has been helping with trapping efforts in the area for about seven years. She grew up in Festus and said the area has always had a stray problem. Fixing a cat is expensive — sometimes a few hundred dollars — and some people can’t afford it.
But she also knows people who feed the strays. And they’re not going to stop just because of a new city law.
“They do it because they love animals,” she said.
Trapping cats
Christina Rutz, founder and president of south ӣƵ County-based nonprofit Full Circle MO Feral, said she would rather see Festus fine residents for feeding “unclipped cats,” cats who have not been fixed or vaccinated, instead of this blanket ban.
“That would be more proactive,” Rutz said. “Putting a ban on feeding cats is not going to make the population go down. ... It’s not going to eliminate these cats. It’ll just make everyone pissed off.”
Rutz said the best solution is for residents who feed stray cats to trap the felines and take them to a clinic. She understands Festus only has one animal control officer, which is why it’s important the community participates in population control.
“If they care enough to feed the cat, they should care enough to fix the cat,” Rutz said. “People are not going to stop feeding cats. If they do stop feeding, the cats are just going to be displaced and eat from birdfeeders a few blocks down.”
Christopher, the city public works director, said a catch-and-release program would be difficult for Festus’ sole animal control officer to manage alone, at least right now.
But it might be an option as the city grows, he said.
Already, Festus provides traps to residents looking to remove feral cats from their property, and the city’s animal control department adopts out the cats they trap themselves.
Since the beginning of the year, the city has captured around 20 cats. It bought two new traps this year just to keep up, Christopher said.
In the days following the passage of the ordinances, Christopher said he has received three messages from residents, all of whom have been reasonable and open-minded.
“For everyone that is upset, I would reiterate that this is a public health and safety issue,” Christopher said of the feeding ban. “If you can’t guarantee your animal is vaccinated for rabies, that’s a very big risk, especially to young kids.”
The Festus City Council meets again at 6 p.m. Monday, July 28.
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