A recent meeting of the Cape May (N.J.) City Council attracted nearly 100 cat lovers, present to denounce a plan to relocate a colony of feral cats. The plan would have moved the cats at least 1,000 feet from the beach, in an attempt to keep the cats at least a half-mile from any known nests of endangered shorebirds, The Associated Press reports.
The plan was developed in response to a threat from the federal government to cut off the city’s beach replenishment funding, according to Neils Favre, Cape May’s deputy mayor. The city council decided not to move the cats at this time, opting instead to try to convince federal and state wildlife officials that the city’s trap-neuter-return programs are effectively reducing the population of feral cats.
Cape May’s TNR program has successfully reduced the city’s feral cat population from 450 to about 100 cats over the past decade, according to Becky Robinson, president of Alley Cat Allies. Robinson hopes the program will be allowed to continue, as it is working well.
“Municipalities should be looking to Cape May as an example of how to humanely deal with their cat population,” she said. “Cats are a part of the fabric of society here.”