Councilmen address potential feral cat problem

Councilmen Dennis Clark and L. Corey Sloan requested the city take action in creating a program to spay and neuter Cameron’s feral cats.

Clark and Sloan requested Cameron City Manager Steve Rasmussen and Animal Control Officer Kathy Turner to create a program dealing with feral cats, based on a recent uptick in apprehensions.

“In a recent conversation with the animal control officer, I think she picked up 27 cats in three days and they’re having a problem trying to handle this,” Clark said. “I would like us to consider a trial program for a year or two where we would track feral cats, neuter them and any citizen could have their cat neutered for free. A cat may have six or eight kittens and over a year this will help us determine if this is an effective program and an effective way to handle it.”

Clark said creating a spay and neuter program would greatly reduce the number of feral cats and added expanding the program to cover free spay and neutering for Cameron dog owners is not out of the question. Rasmussen said many cities created similar programs.

“What happens is, by the time you reduce the population of feral cats and wild dogs, it saves money from having to take care of wild dogs and feral cats,” Rasmussen said. “We can certainly look at that, model it up with some of other cities and bring back some proposals.”

With Cameron already having agreements with local rescue organizations such as Puppies on Parole, Sloan believes a spay and neutering program would be a great fit for the city.

“Many communities are doing it across the nation and partnering with different humane societies and animal non-profit groups,” Sloan said. They’re releasing Cats are territorial and, this way (the territory) is not taken over by another feral cat. The new [program] should not be discriminatory in regard to dogs because that is also an issue. You get dogs that are abandoned and left on the side of the road.”