A lady has been charged with keeping dangerous animals. She lives in a trailer park in America. She feeds the cats. That’s all. She says the cats are abandoned domestic cats. Animal Control said that she can’t provide care and control of the cats because they are not domesticated (but they are). I don’t understand how feeding abandoned domestic cats can been construed as ‘keeping dangerous animals’.
Perhaps where she lives (Criswell Court Trailer Park) feeding animals constitutes owning animals and if the animals are deemed wild you are then keeping dangerous animals.
Although her argument is good she has a weakness: she also feeds raccoons but this is unintentional. They come to eat the food she puts down for the abandoned domestic cats.
She does a nice job. she provides a wooden shelter as well as the food. That’s compassionate as far as I am concerned and not the sort of behaviour that is criminal.
It appears that city officials are concerned with feeding wild animals including water fowl. It seems that the lady has been caught up in a city policy that is born out of complaints from residents about feeding animals outside.
She wanted to plead guilty to get the criminal proceedings over and done with. As the court papers were illegible the judge asked what she was pleading guilty to. She changed her mind and has decided to challenge the charge at trial and hopes for the support of the community. She feels that she has done nothing wrong. I agree.
She is picking up the pieces left behind from bad cat ownership. The council should realise that and look for ways of improving cat ownership and dealing with the abandoned cats humanely. The should support her not decry and criminalise her.
Her name is Cathy Werkmeister, 61, and she keeps her cats inside all the time.
You can read an extended version of this story here.
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