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| A policy that offers a $5 bounty for trapping feral cats is drawing fire from animal welfare groups. |
The small town of Randolph, Iowa, is offering $5 for every feral cat brought to Mayor Vance Trively’s office in an attempt to control the small town’s feral cat population. The new ordinance, based on the town’s existing leash law, will allow residents to trap cats found roaming without identification. The cats then will be taken to a local veterinarian, where they will be euthanized unless claimed by an owner.
The new policy was adopted after town officials received numerous complaints about the feral cats, The Associated Press reports. One resident said a cat attacked a small dog, while another reported that a dozen cats showed up to eat from a pet cat’s bowl.
Trively said the new policy will help the control the dozens of feral cats in town. “You can’t just let them keep multiplying in town,” he said.
Not all of the town’s 200 constituents are happy with the new policy, KETV News of Omaha, Neb., reports. “If people would spay and neuter their animals, we would not have this problem,” Jo Driskell, who works in Randolph, told KETV News.
The policy is also drawing fire from animal welfare groups across the country. “The fact that a city would place a ‘bounty’ on the lives of outdoor cats is absolutely barbaric and ludicrous,” said Becky Robinson, president of Alley Cat Allies, an advocate organization for stray and feral cats.
Robinson said that “catch and kill” policies don’t work because new cats simply move in, breed prolifically and begin the cycle again. Robinson has offered her group’s assistance to the town of Randolph to help implement a trap-neuter-return program, in which feral cats are humanely trapped, altered and vaccinated, then returned to their colonies.
“Municipalities in which trap-neuter-return has been implemented see fewer cats entering shelters and lower kill rates, and the cities actually save money, because ‘catch and kill’ is expensive,” Robinson said. “It is our sincere hope that Mayor Trively will reconsider and instead adopt this far more progressive and humane program.”
Update: Randolph, Iowa, removes cat bounty. More>>