As reported by SFBay.ca today, Alley Cat Allies filed a lawsuit with the Alameda County Superior Court against East Bay Regional Park District this past Wednesday, 21 July 2021.

Alley Cat Allies' suit alleges that EBRPD's new policy fails to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).  As noted by AGM Kelchner on page 162 of the packet and presentation for the 15 June General Board Meeting, CEQA applies when a public agency's actions causes "a physical change in the environment."  It is interesting to note that CEQA was not mentioned at all in the first draft of the new policy (the draft that was presented at the 25 February Natural and Cultural Resources Committee meeting).  By the time the June draft was presented, it warranted enough additional language to catch my attention; it crossed my mind that perhaps "the lady doth protest too much."  I didn't have time to research or pursue the CEQA angle prior to the meeting.

Kudos to Lisa Kirk, who DID challenge them about CEQA right then and there in her comments during the meeting!  That link takes you to the point where she talks about CEQA, but before that she talks about something that I failed to say in my live comments.  ONCE AN ANIMAL IS IN A TRAP, THE NEXT STEP IS NOT TO KILL THE DEFENSELESS LIVING BEING, BUT TO HAVE AN ACO (Animal Control Officer) COME PICK IT UP AND TAKE IT TO A SHELTER.  I did bring this up in my prior meeting with Board President Dee Rosario.  Also, in the letter I submitted for the June meeting I wrote that "if your goal were truly to protect animals from a potential predator, then you fulfilled your noble duty the second the trap closed.  Explain how successfully trapping them and then killing them instead of sending them to a shelter is 'last resort'."

Removing cats from an ecologically sensitive area can have unforeseen and deadly consequences for the very species you are trying to protect.  From an article in Nature magazine, titled "Ecosystem devastated after predators wiped out", ecologist Dana Bergstrom said, "Try, if you can, to identify any unintentional consequences.  How are invasive species connected to each other and how are they related to natives?  These species become quite entwined in the hundreds of years they are together."  Ecologist Franck Courchamp stated that the only possible solution is to study the invaded ecosystem carefully before any control measures.

When I started this petition, I believed that cats who posed a credible threat to protected wildlife should be removed from the environment; my argument was that it was absolutely unnecessary and cruel to KILL them rather than to humanely trap and remove them to do so.  I am not an ecologist, so it did not even occur to me that removing the cats at all might put the species of concern at greater risk.  I would expect that EBRPD would WANT a CEQA investigation before they made changes to their policy, to minimize the risk of unintended negative consequences.

It will be interesting to see what happens next.  I promise to send updates (as well as post the abundant and horrific information about the USDA's so-called "Wildlife Services") in the future.

Thank you for continuing to find room in your hearts to care about all animals, human and non-human, native and non-native alike.