The City Council in Edmonds, Wash., has voted 4-3 against a proposed ordinance that would have legalized and regulated pet trapping. The Council then ordered that an ordinance be drafted forbidding intentional pet trapping.
The impetus behind the proposed ordinance was a neighborhood dispute about a cat. A couple claimed a neighbor’s pet cat named Turbo had killed a pet quail they’d released in their yard and had threatened wild birds frequenting their bird feeders.
The couple then captured Turbo to make a point, luring him into a cage with cat food. They kept the cat for 24 hours before turning him over to Edmonds Animal Control.
Current Edmonds and Washington state ordinances neither forbid nor permit temporary pet trapping. To clarify city codes, city officials drew up the ordinance regulating pet trapping.
The proposed ordinance stated that anyone who traps an animal trespassing on private property must notify animal control within 12 hours. It also forbids “applying unreasonable force or inflicting more pain or harm to said animal than the situation reasonably requires.”
During a public meeting on the matter, Edmonds Council Member Deanna Dawson said the ordinance amounted to a sanction of pet trapping by the city. Council members Ron Wambolt, Michael Plunkett and Mauri Moore joined Dawson in the 4-3 rejection of the proposed ordinance.
On Dawson’s recommendation, the council unanimously requested a new ordinance be created forbidding intentional pet trapping. Complainants instead could notify animal control about
nuisance pets.
The proposal is expected to be finished in the next several weeks and will face a public hearing before a formal vote by the Council.