Port Orange, Florida: The mayor says that city funded TNR in Port Orange, which started in 2012, is not working while those involved in it say it is and neighbouring TNR programs in Deltona and Daytona Beach are successful and chugging along.
“We’re spending a lot of money with a program that has some holes in it, so we’ve suspended that until we can decide on a course of action..” – Mayor Burnette.
The report does not tell us what the ‘holes’ are specifically. It would be nice if the mayor elucidated on that point. The CEO of Halifax Humane Society, Miguel Abi-hassan, says that is a tragedy to stop TNR and that the program showed ‘some real progress’. Over seven years of data cats brought into shelters had dropped from 827 in 2012 to 432 in 2017. That’s almost a 50% decrease so I am not sure why the mayor said it is not working.
The cost has been substantial at very nearly $50,000 for the past three years.
The assistant city manager, Alan Rosen, hinted that the funding will stop permanently.
“No program is ever going to be perfect..[but that it] might have to acknowledge that this is unfixable.”
Although at the moment the funding has been suspended. The city intends to collect more data and evidence on the effectiveness of TNR in their city before making a final decision.
A spokesperson, Pat Mihalic (president of Concerned Citizens for Animal Welfare), for the passionate TNR volunteers and caregivers said that pulling funding for TNR was ‘a slap in the face to colony caregivers’.
The TNR volunteers will fight the decision. They attended a council meeting at 6:30 pm to voice their concerns. We don’t have a report on how it went.
Comment: The opinion of the American Bird Conservancy was predictable. they always argue that TNR programs are a bad policy which creates public health issues. We never have details and hard science to support this sort of statement. The point is that TNR is effective when carried out to a good standard and when properly supported. The volunteers are there. It is up to the city to use them. It is rare to have a pool of people willing and able to work free of charge on a project which benefits a city.
Source: heraldtribune.com
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