An ordinance that would allow residents to neuter and release stray cats engendered some strong feelings at the first official business meeting of the newly elected City Council on July 28.
The feral cat ordinance had failed to get a second from the outgoing City Council in June.
The ordinance would have allowed certain approved caregivers and/or shelters in the city to capture, neuter, vaccinate, and return the cats to the streets, where they would be monitored for future health problems.
At the July 28 meeting, as those for and against the measure came armed with conflicting statistics as to the possible dangers imposed on humans.
Kathleen Henderson of the Bayonne Feral Cat Foundation urged the newly elected members to introduce and pass the ordinance, disputing statements made in a letter from the state’s Fish and Game Council that opposed the centerpiece of the city ordinance.
“There has not been a single human death from rabies attributed to transmission from a cat in the USA in over thirty years.” — A study on feral cats
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A feral cat is one that is born and raised in the wild or has been abandoned or lost. It reverts to wild ways in order to survive. Feral cats often live in groups, called colonies, and take refuge wherever they can find food such as rodents and garbage. They also seek out abandoned buildings, deserted cars, even dig holes in the ground to keep warm in winter months and cool during the summer heat.
Objections
Cathy Smith – unrelated to Mayor Smith – also spoke at the council meeting objecting to the ordinance, presenting studies that show that feral cats can be a risk to human health, laying out a range of diseases and bacterial risks these cats can pose. She argued that rather than manage the colonies, cat colonies should be “removed.” Under the existing program in Bayonne, animal control officers are called to pick up wild cats, which are brought to the Associated Humane Societies shelter in Newark and euthanized after seven days if they are not adopted.
Feral cats are almost never adopted.
Cathy Smith’s arguments, however, are largely countered by several studies that show that well-manage feral cat colonies pose little or no risk to human beings.
Mayor Smith said two state groups, the Fish and Game Council and the Endangered and Nongame Species Advisory Committee, both oppose the program Henderson proposes. While the Fish and Game Council and the Endangered and Nongame Species Advisory Committee have issued a joint resolution opposing programs such as TNR (Trap-neuter-release), they admit they have no solution other than the current program to euthanize feral cats.
Henderson noted that the letter received from the state comes from those agencies involved with hunting and gaming monitoring, not with public health.
“Their sole purpose as a council is to oversee hunting licensing,” Henderson said, noting that some members of the council didn’t even know the letter was issued.
Earlier this year, New Jersey’s Fish and Game Council raised an outcry in the animal rights community when it was considering legalizing hunting of feral cats.
“We got letters months back from animal rights league about this,” Henderson said, noting that neither of the two groups has expertise in animal control.
Little risk
While Cathy Smith cited several studies that indicated risk to human health, most studies show that the risk is low. A Stanford study found little or no risk to human health or safety from feral cats. Similar research at the University of Florida found that feral cats and owned cats share similar health status, confirming that the cats do not pose a significant risk to public health.
A cat scratch can cause fever, fatigue, sore throats, and headaches in an affected human, but most patients do not become seriously ill, studies show. Some cats can pass on upper respiratory infection to humans in the form of conjunctivitis and intestinal parasites. Parasites in some feral cats, especially in kittens, can pose some risk to children, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems, but experts say treatment is seldom necessary. These studies also conclude that cats are not natural carriers for rabies.
“There has not been a single human death from rabies attributed to transmission from a cat in the USA in over 30 years,” one study said.
“Although there are potential hazards for acquiring some diseases from feral cats, the incidence is rare, and if common sense and good hygiene are combined when working with colonies, transmission of infectious diseases from colonies to humans can be minimized,” one study by the American Society Prevention of Cruelty to Animals concluded.
Henderson said the TNR program would actually help lower the risks of infections, since trapped cats are vaccinated against rabies and then provide an immune barrier between humans and wildlife in the community.
Attempts to bring experts to meet with the mayor and city officials, Henderson said, have failed.
“We invited the mayor and the city law director to meet with Michelle Lerner, an attorney with the Animal Protection League of NJ, but they never accepted,” Henderson said.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.