Feeding Feral Cats Is Legal With A Few Exceptions
The video relates to the legality of feeding feral cats in one county in the USA: Alachua County. However, there is an interesting snippet of information during the video. The Board of County Commissioners sought and received the legal advice of the County Attorney. He implied in his advice that feeding feral cats is likely to be legal under state and federal law as well in Alachua County.
He had to make a decision on all three levels of law otherwise they might clash. The laws appear to be in harmony. There have been discussions in some municipalities across the United States about prohibiting the feeding of feral cats. Some administrators have enacted laws banning feral cat feeding. In which case there will be a problem with TNR programs as well. Feeding feral cats is part of TNR work. For instance the Fort Oglethorpe City ordinance makes it a crime to feed feral cats. There are other examples e.g Augusta, Kansas.
In these earlier cases there is never any question of interference from state or federal law except for Hawaii which has banned feeding the cats at ports. The state has a particularly pressing bird conservation issue. It is legal to feed ferals in Florida by the way. Florida has seabirds.
Other than Hawaii, it seems all the anti-feral cat feeding ordinances are at county or city level unless someone can correct me. I would be pleased if they could. Here is the video from the wcjb.com website: