Augusta Couple Overturn Conviction For Providing Feral Cats With Water

This compassionate Augusta couple, Sue and Ray Jones, were criminalized for providing feral cats with water. It’s very strange and on the face of it completely wrong. On their appeal the jury took 15 minutes to decide that the conviction was flawed. The couple’s lawyer said it was the shortest time (s)he had witnessed for a jury to come to a decision. This indicates the flawed nature of the conviction.

Augusta Couple Overturn Conviction For Providing Feral Cats With Water
Augusta Couple Overturn Conviction For Providing Feral Cats With Water

However, the legal process put this nice couple through a lot of upset and stress for a year, for what? The prosecution clearly got this very wrong. Sue and Ray were not feeding the cats but providing water. This is an interesting point. It implies that there is an ordinance in Augusta or the county that forbids the feeding of feral cats unless certain conditions are met. There is a similar same ordinance in Fort Oglethorpe, Catoosa County, GA. It seems to be a Georgian concept.

In a previous post I referred to a prosecution for feeding and providing water.

‘There is nothing in the city ordinance prohibiting providing water to animals’, says Sue Jones.

Sue also says that the prosecution presumed that they owned the feral cats. As Sue says, no one owns feral cats (obviously). The ordinance may prohibit the feeding and watering of owned cats in public places but if anyone can provide further details it would be most welcome.

Video

The video below explains it and you get a chance to hear and see Sue Jones explain what happened and she is switched on and compassionate. She wants the local authorities to initiate wide ranging TNR programs to help the feral cats of the area.

Update: The video won’t play because it comes from an site which is not encrypted! I am trying to overcome this.

At present, I cannot find the ordinance to which Sue Jones refers although I believe that it will demand that if somebody feeds a feral cat they have to do other things as well such as sterilize the cat and so on. It has to be part of a program and Sue Jones does work with Friends of Felines KS, which provides TNR services.

My impression is that the original prosecution was misconceived and may have gone wrong because it was presumed that both Ray and Sue Jones were feeding and providing cats with water in a public place which, on the face of it, is a breach of the local ordinance despite the fact that I’ve not seen this particular law. And there was a mistake about feral cat ownership.

9 thoughts on “Augusta Couple Overturn Conviction For Providing Feral Cats With Water”

  1. The author of the best comment will receive an Amazon gift of their choice at Christmas! Please comment as they can add to the article and pass on your valuable experience.
  2. Just another example of jurisprudence gone awry. So, the authorities would rather the cats die of thirst and hunger? How foolish and short-sighted. Glad this lawsuit was overturned in favor of the defendants. Now it’s time for Georgia (not just Augusta) to get their act together and provide TNR programs for the ferals. If every municipality did it the correct way, the feral population would eventually diminish. That and. of course, the general population spaying and neutering their cats to prevent future litters. It really does take a village.

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  3. I’m glad to hear this news!

    Augusta is definitely a unique place. Sad they dislike cats. My mother and a friend used to feed the locals on Greene Street years ago. Its disheartening that the city made such evil ordinances.

    All animals have to have both food and water. People threw the ferals away like garbage so people need to help them survive.

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