Dear County Board Members,
As a long time resident of McHenry County, I would like to tell you
about some issues and concerns I have regarding the Trap, Neuter,
Release (TNR) Program of feral cats that that the McHenry County
Board is considering as a pilot program.
The majority of the counties in the country that allow these TNR
programs have no leash laws or ordinances on cats. McHenry County
does, and has for many years! I wonder how the cat owners of this
county will feel about having two separate laws on cats? One law
will apply to them which says their cat must stay on their property
and is not allowed to run at large and they can be fined if it does.
This law will not apply to TNR caretakers.
McHenry County cat owners are held responsible if their cat bites or
scratches someone or causes property damage. The TNR advocates do
not feel they should be responsible if a feral cat bites or causes
damage. This is outrageous! The same law that applies to the
general public should also apply to caretakers of TNR cats. If you
feed it, it's yours and you are responsible!
I am all for the Animal Outreach Society (AOS) to trap, neuter and
adopt out the feral cats and kittens that are "adoptable." But
releasing the un-adoptable cats to the wild is doing an injustice to
our environment! Cats are not native wildlife! It is a well known
documented fact that free roaming cats kill an unbelievable number of
songbirds and other wildlife every year. Supplemental feeding of
feral cats does not stop them from killing. It only makes them more
proficient at killing. Our wildlife face enough obstacles in today's
world. With the alarming loss of habitat, there has been a decline
in many species. Allowing TNR will only compound the problem.
Releasing these cats to the wild is not beneficial for them either.
They are more susceptible to disease, abscesses, eye infections,
parasites (internal and external), dog attacks, and being hit by
cars. Many will freeze to death or suffer frost bite due to
inadequate shelters. Is this what we call quality of life?
Free roaming cats are notorious for defecating in gardens and flower
beds as well as children's sandboxes adding greater potential for
disease. They also spray (or mark) patios, decks, garages, etc.
creating a foul odor that is extremely difficult to get rid of.
It is also a well known fact that once a feral cat has been live
trapped they will seldom enter another trap. This makes it extremely
difficult to catch a cat that may be diseased, injured, exhibiting
signs of unusual behavior, or heaven forbid, a human bite.
Frankly, I resent the fact that the citizens of McHenry County who
are opposed to the feral cat programs have no say at all if a TNR
colony is established in their neighborhood. This simply is not
right!
Before voting on this pilot program, I ask the Board to please take
these feral cat issues into consideration as well as possible
liability issues. Someone needs to be liable for these feral cats
especially if a human is bitten or scratched. In this "sue happy"
society we live in today, is it possible that someone may consider
the County Board members liable for approving the TNR program in the
first place?
Respectfully,
Sally Joosten
Woodstock, Illinois
I
understand that a program to trap, neuter and release feral cats
is under consideration in your county. Although I am a
Lake County resident I must offer my protest to your county or
any other county that considers this type of program.
I am a
responsible cat owner, have been all of my life. My cats
are indoor cats and have never been allowed to roam free.
I am also the Director of Barnswallow, A Wild Bird Concern.
Barnswallow is a state and federally licensed wild bird
rehabilitation and education center. My property borders a
Lake County forest preserve where feral cats roam, breed and
unwanted "pet" cats are dumped. We trap these feral, lost,
starving, ill, and sometimes pregnant cats each year. This
year we recovered 12 with the intent to cure and then adopt them
out to a good home. There have been others we have not
been able to capture but have watched sadly as their health
declined and then they disappeared. Unfortunately 10 of
the twelve we did recover this year alone, tested positive for
Feline Leukemia and by the time we captured them they were too
ill to place in a responsible home. Responsible homes are
also not easy to find. All were infested with parasites.
All were emaciated and had infected wounds and/or eye
infections. We trap these poor scraggly suffering beings
because the alternative is a slow death. They also pose a
danger to my own indoor cats as many of the diseases carried by
feral cats can be transmitted thru a screened window by simply
hissing, sneezing or any other type of saliva. They pose a
risk or transference of disease to me and my children by
defecating in my garden or in areas where my children play. In
addition, it is a documented fact that free-roaming cats
unnecessarily kill between 4 and 5 million songbirds in the
United States every day. Many of
our songbird species are already at risk. I get several
cat attack victims each year where someone's small child brings
me a mangled song bird that their cat caught and expect me to
"save it". It is rare that a "cat catch" can be saved due
to infection passed thru the puncture wounds despite the expense
of antibiotics and supportive care. These
free-roaming non-native cats if not
preying on songbirds pursue small rodents which are a critical
food-source for our native federally protected owls, hawks and
falcons who already suffer tragically from loss of habitat,
starvation, poison and other affects of the impact humans and
development in all of our northern counties.
I could go on
with my reasons and hopefully others have presented to you
similar problems with a Trap, Neuter and Release program.
I personally am tired of taking on the responsibility of trying
to care for free-roaming cats that others feel no responsibility
for. Sure spaying or neutering is great, vaccinating is
good but who is going to follow up? where do these poor
strays sleep? How many cats can compete against a raccoon
for space in a hollow log? what prevents them from getting
really sick or injured? What about transferring disease to
in-door cats or children? Why allow such an impact on our
native wild bird population? To me such a program is out of
sight/out of mind. Kind of like a story I heard once of
some airplane engineers that when their specially designed plane
took flight they all applauded and patted themselves on the back
and went to celebrate not realizing that their plane once out of
sight, crashed and burned a few miles away in a farm field.
They reportedly didn't care because they felt they had "done
their job". The life and health of any animal demands more
respect that that. Please if you consider being
responsible - see the whole picture and follow all the way
through.
respectfully
submitted,
Linda S.
Breuer
Director
Barnswallow, A
Wild Bird concern
847-487-3606
