Feline fury over a policy which euthanizes stray cats

There is a better way of handling a stray cat problem than trapping and killing them. And the residents of Pompano Beach, Florida are also afraid that pet cats might be accidentally euthanised (killed is a more accurate word) which is what has happened already.

Peter Werneken said:

“I was devastated, I was really upset.”

He’d had just seen his cat, Big Yella in a cage, dead; put down by an Animal Control officer after a neighbour complained.

“Next day, Mike, one of the animal control guys, shows me a picture of a dead cat in a cage, and that was him,” Werneken said

The Pompano Beach Public Works Director Robert McCaughan defended their policy of trapping and killing stray cats:

“We absolutely ignore the community cats. We don’t look for them, not after them.”

The concerned residents respectfully disagree and with a passion. Nearly 80 of them attended a commission meeting last Tuesday.

Pompano Beach does not participate in the Broward County TNR programs aka “Return to the Field”.

McCaughan said that they scanned for a microchip and assessed the cat’s behavior. But what if the cat is domesticated and someone’s companion but not microchipped and terrified as he is trapped in a cage being assessed by a complete stranger intent in killing him? He’ll be killed that’s what will happen. This policy it too risky. There are better ways.

You can’t assess felines like this with certainty as Belle Laue said:

“You mean to tell me that they can assess that, a terrified animal in a trapped cage, by a stranger?”

So what next? City managers are going to re-assess their policy with respect to stray cats when they meet up with rescue groups. They want to find some new ideas. Good but in the meantime Peter Werneken is distraught at the loss of his loved cat and Big Yella is dead for no reason.

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