A man, we don’t have his name, is trying to make a statement about feral or community cats in Chicago of which we are told there are up to three quarters of a million. He is trapping cats and taking them to shelter on Western Avenue. He trapped 15 cats on the South Side on Monday and then proceeded to trap 15 more cats on the North Side on Tuesday. He then appears to have trapped 10 more on Wednesday and he took them all to the shelter on Western Avenue.

He is adamant that he is going to keep on doing it despite the shelter trying to convince him that there are alternatives. The shelter says that many of them don’t look injured and are in fine condition. Critically, the executive director of Animal Care and Control, Susan Russell, says that she believes that some of the cat are pets.

Therefore some of these cats are ‘owned cats’. What this man is doing is in effect stealing the cats which is a crime. He is not thinking about that possibility. He simply trying to make a statement but he cannot do what he’s doing without getting into trouble with the law eventually. In fact arguably this is also an abuse of cats. The cats are unnecessarily confined to cages. They may be euthanized. It puts a big responsibility on the shelter because they are exposed to euthanizing a outside domestic cat. Technically or actually that could also be a crime although no one will classify it as such.

The cats are being dealt with at the shelter in the usual way but this person’s actions are putting an added strain on the shelter.

This is quite peculiar behaviour but it does indicate that some people are frustrated and taking steps on their own without consultation and in possible breach of the law because they believe there are too many cats on the streets in Chicago. He probably feels that the authorities are not doing enough about it.

Source: chicago.cbslocal.com