I Like Minneapolis (and St. Paul)!
I like Minneapolis because the city council are debating a change in the city’s attitude on controlling stray and feral cats. At the moment the policy is:
- Catch and Kill stray cats, while at the same time..
- prosecuting citizens who feed and neuter stray cats (i.e. Joy Mattice spent $1000s of her own money providing a public service and was still criminalized – weird).
The policy might change to the classic trap-neuter-return (TNR). The effectiveness of TNR has been widely debated itself. Supporters of TNR are cat and animal lovers and the opposition are bird conservationists (American Bird Conservancy). The ever-present battle.
However, the reason for the serious debate on the change is based on cold facts. This is not an emotional decision-making process. The facts support TNR:
- TNR has reduced by 26 percent the number of impounded cats in neighboring St. Paul. I presume that means that there are less cats wandering around the streets, and;
- TNR is cheaper than euthanasia. Spay and neuter cost $40 to $50 per cat, while killing a cat humanely cost $100 and;
- The 125 year old catch and kill policy of Minneapolis has achieved nothing….
“They’ve been killing cats in Minneapolis for 125 years, and the problem is getting worse, not better,” he said. (Mike Fry, the executive director at Animal Ark).
It appears that City Council Member Cam Gordon is promoting this change in policy. Well done to Cam Gordon.
Personally, I’d be thrilled if Minneapolis adopts a TNR policy. We have to praise St. Paul as well who have proved that TNR works. This is very important because a lot of people don’t like kind ladies feeding stray cats while they are being spayed and neutered. I understand the concerns because feeding stray cats attracts other wildlife.
However, under the proposed policy people who feed cats will no longer be criminalized. These people can apply to the city authorities to feed and trap cats provided the cats are taken to a non-profit for sterilization, which seems an enlightened approach to the stray cat problem, to me, as it harnesses the energies and concerns of the decent citizens of Minneapolis.