Humane Society breaks partnership with local authority because they secretly planned to trap and kill feral cats

NEWS AND COMMENT: For me this is an interesting story because it tells us, once again, how local authorities in America and in the UK and I presume other countries struggle with feral cats. Within local authorities there are council members who want to operate TNR programs as the method to control feral cat numbers and on the opposite side of the fence there are those who want to trap and kill them. That is the inhumane way. There is an even more inhumane way which is to simply shoot or poison them and that happens too.

Granite Shoals, Texas.
Granite Shoals Texas is a beautiful city. It looks fabulous. Image assessed as being in the public domain.

In this instance, the council members of the City of Granite Shoals, in Texas, discussed how to deal with feral cat colonies in the city over a period of 4.5 hours at a meeting of the city’s wildlife committee during which the majority decided on trapping and killing the cats. They went on to discuss where to dispose of the remains.

The meeting was recorded and the recording found its way to Hill Country Humane Society who decided they didn’t like what they heard and ended their collaboration with the city.

On where to dispose of the bodies, the recording revealed the following comment: “We have a location on this property that’s called deer heaven. I am sure it could be kitty heaven too.”

As a result of the revealed recordings, the City of Granite Shoals council had a further meeting to discuss the fallout. They rowed back (vigorously) to say that they would not deal with feral cats inhumanely.

The city’s major, Ron Munos, in speaking to a local news media outlet, said that the city does not endorse “inhumane and illegal treatment of feral cats”. He mentioned that the police don’t either.

The city wants to renew their relationship with the Humane Society. It must have been a useful partnership.

Members of the City Council and I do not support, condone, or agree with the statements or opinions expressed by some members of the Wildlife Advisory Committee and our City Manager that occurred in recent meetings regarding possible methods to manage feral cats in our community.

Major Munos

He further added the following:

Ethics Commission Chairman Mark Morren and I took to heart what the board of directors of the Hill Country Humane Society recommended. I will be presenting that information to Council members at the January 9, 2024, meeting so that we may move forward with renewing our relationship with the Hill Country Humane Society.

The City Council and I would like to thank the citizens of Granite Shoals, Dr. Natalie Lord and members of the various organizations that have agreed to assist us with feral cat colonies in Granite Shoals. It is very apparent that we have wonderful citizens and organizations that care deeply for this community and the animals that live here with us. I’m confident that the City Council and I will take the right steps to move forward and act in the best interest of our wonderful city.

Comment: Great. It is nice to see the city taking the humane path. But as mentioned it does highlight the understandable struggle that city councils have with dealing with feral cats. I have not seen in this story any mention of taking proactive steps to reduce the creation of feral cats going forward. That surely is equally if not more important.

This means looking at cat ownership and improving it in the city and surrounding areas. Ultimately all feral cats come from poorly cared for domestic cats due to irresponsible ownership. Education is the key and it seems that the Humane Society has educated the Granite Shoals city council on how to deal with feral cats.

My thanks to the KXAN news media channel.

RELATED: Trap-neuter-release has worked well for the stray cats occupying four ancient temples in Rome, Italy.

2 thoughts on “Humane Society breaks partnership with local authority because they secretly planned to trap and kill feral cats”

  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. I just sent off a email to Alley Cat Allies about Granite Shoals plan to kill ferals. They have helped other cities to make a plan to TNR and return them and they pick up kittens before they are feral and find them homes.
    Part of the problem is animal control will pick up dogs but most cities don’t bother with cats. If someone else traps them they will pick them up. It just ticks me off all they ever want to do is kill them even though it’s not their fault they were dumped by a-hole humans!

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