Henrico Zoning Board ruling is a victory for feral cat caregivers

Feral cats and their caregivers won a victory in Henrico County this week.

A very kind and responsible lady has been caring for a small feral cat colony for years near her home and faithfully trapping, neutering, vaccinating and feeding them. After County officials instructed her to seek a conditional use permit in order to continue caring for the colony or otherwise risk prosecution (for an alleged zoning violation), the Board of Zoning Appeals issued a ruling yesterday rejecting that assertion. In its meeting, Board members said such a permit is only required if a resident “keeps” more than three adult pets. Since feral cats have no owner and survive independently outdoors, they are not susceptible of being “kept.” Consequently, the Board determined that Henrico County was wrong when it asked the woman to pursue the conditional use permit months ago.

Let us only imagine what life for feral cats would look like if jurisdictions started requiring devoted volunteer caretakers like her who dutifully trap, neuter, vaccinate and feed feral cats to obtain conditional use permits that would allow them to continue their lifesaving work. Adding unnecessary red tape to an already demanding effort and selfless task (which provides huge benefits to localities) would be both expensive and harmful.

Feral cats exist because of human irresponsibility and are the offspring of abandoned and loosely-owned pet cats that were never spayed or neutered. They have always existed and will continue to exist throughout our community as long as human behavior does not change. The only responsible, humane and effective method for managing feral cat colonies is Trap-Neuter-Return, which is why our Smoky’s Spay/Neuter Clinic delivers sterilization surgeries and rabies vaccinations to feral cats in Greater Richmond free of charge. Through TNR, we ensure that cats can no longer reproduce, thereby preventing the growth of the colony. We also ensure that the cats present no material health risks to the community because they are vaccinated against the rabies virus. And most importantly, we saves their lives.

The Richmond SPCA is deeply grateful to the Henrico County Board of Zoning Appeals, and especially to Russell A. "Al" Wright who articulated the thoughtful analysis that arrived at this positive result for feral cats.

Tamsen Kingry is the chief operating officer of the Richmond SPCA. To read her biography or that of our other bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires a first and last name to be used as your screen name.

Update: 
Sept. 20, 2011: Effort against feral cats in Henrico goes before Henrico Board of Zoning Appeals this Thursday  

Comments

[Peter J. Wolf]

Indeed, the Henrico County Board of Zoning Appeals is to be praised for its decision. Even setting aside the animal welfare issues involved, it’s clear that years of trap-and-kill efforts have gotten us nowhere.

“There’s no department that I’m aware of,” says Mark Kumpf, past president of the National Animal Control Association, “that has enough money in their budget to simply practice the old capture-and-euthanize policy; nature just keeps having more kittens.” Traditional control methods, he argued, in a 2008 interview with Animal Sheltering magazine, are akin to “bailing the ocean with a thimble.”

Thankfully, communities across the country—fed up after years of fruitless “bailing”—are turning to TNR. It may not be an ideal solution, but it most cases, it’s the best option we’ve got.

Peter J. Wolf
http://www.voxfelina.com

[Elke Landenberger]

I'm very thrilled to hear that this ruling allows the "cat lady" in Henrico to continue taking care of her colonies without any added red tape. Now I wish the officials would take a closer look and realize how much money could be saved by implementing TNR programs as opposed to catching and killing abandonded and feral cats at the shelters.

[Ed Moore]

I commend the volunteer caretaker in the article as being responsible in her efforts to trap, neuter and vaccinate the cats. However, I am very concerned about other people who are not as responsible. They feed feral colonies, but nothing more, and the colonies continue to grow. A lady in my neighborhood does this. Despite continued attempts by other neighbors to convince her to look into a TNR program, she says "there is nothing wrong with what she's doing". The neighborhood has grown so tired of the many, many cats (some sickly) roaming the area. We have contacted the SPCA to see if someone could just go talk to her and discuss TNR, but the SPCA said no, they don't do that. Next, we will be contacting animal control to see if they can help.

[Tamsen Kingry]

Ed, thank you for your post. We would be happy to work with your neighbor to get her the materials and guidance she needs to be successful in establishing a TNR program for this colony. We provide this type of assistance to the community regularly. Please have her call 804-521-1312 or if you prefer, you are welcome to email her contact information to me directly at tkingry@richmondspca.org so that I may follow up. Feral cats exist throughout the community, and their humane and effective management is only accomplished through TNR.