Man won’t stop feeding feral cats even when it costs him $100,000, many fines and a possible jail term
Gilbert, Arizona, USA: Paul Rodriguez, 64, believes that he has spent up to $100,000 over 14 years feeding feral cats, ABC News reports. He has been fined countless times and had several run-ins with the police over the past year. In fact in the past month the police have intervened in his activities five times.
Paul Rodriguez. Photo: KNXV.
Rodriguez can’t stop feeding stray and feral cats which is a problem where he lives because the town passed an ordinance in 2018 which made it illegal to feed feral cats on town property (presumed to mean public property such as sidewalks etc. as opposed to private property such as the land around a house).
During a recent conflict with the police he avoided the new law by moving the place where he fed the cats from public to private land but still got into trouble because it is alleged that he mislead the police when he said that he had permission from the land owners to feed cats there. The police did not believe him and told him that local residents don’t want him feeding the cats.
Rodriguez says that he asks land owners for permission and that feeding the cats make trapping them easier for TNR.
He is prepared for another fine and even imprisonment. He said that he is looking at a serious fine and a possible prison sentence. He seems undeterred by that prospect. He is devoted to the cats.
COMMENT: He appears to operate alone. Perhaps he should work with a TNR group if one is in the area. I wonder if the local authority work with volunteers on TNR programs. I feel that he’d be safer if he worked in a more formal, structured way rather than ad hoc as appears to be the case at present. Perhaps the police could help him in this regard rather than simply punishing him which isn’t working.
P.S. Gilbert is located southeast of Phoenix and within the Phoenix metropolitan area.
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