To begin, does anyone truly understand the Community Cat Bill for Anne Arundel County? On paper, it sounded like a wonderful concept when they proposed the idea of people in the community having the ability to become community cat caregivers. A caregiver does NOT mean they are the owner, but they do trap the cats, have them spayed or neutered, vaccinated once for rabies, ear tipped, and then released back to their original location. These caregivers can remain anonymous, and are only required to feed, supply medical treatment if needed, and re-vaccinate for rabies yearly as required by state law. Once the cats are ear tipped, they cannot be trapped or brought to a shelter. This will supposedly limit the amount of feral/semi-feral cats euthanized at the shelters, so the cats can live the rest of their lives outside before dying of “natural causes”. If you trap an ear-tipped cat you must let it go, and if you call animal control to pick it up, the officers must release it on site. Which doesn’t exactly foster a trusting relationship between community and agency.

   Now by definition a “caregiver” seems to have all of the requirements of an owner but the ability to wash their hands of the title. If your dog or cat runs loose you are fined by the county. Hmm, wouldn’t it be nice to say “that’s not my animal” when it suits you? Since we are playing with the definitions here, what is a “community cat”? It’s a semi-feral or feral cat, yes? No. The bill does not specify socialization level which means you can have friendly and ferals running amok and you can’t trap them either. What if this is someone’s cat? That is a valid point raised by many and it may well be someone’s house cat that was ear tipped who will never find their way home if we don’t amend the language to specify what a community cat is. Allowing friendly cats and ferals to be grouped together? This is not decreasing the outside cat population or curing an owner's broken heart.

    Let’s move on. What happens when the nuisance cat is placed back into the same environment? If you are a property owner, you will have no rights to the destruction and nuisance these cats create. If your neighbor wants thirty community cats to roam the neighborhood, they can. Yet, you as the property owner can only legally have nine cats on your property. Unfair. So they can destroy your flower beds, urinate and defecate all over your garden, sit on top of your car and scratch the paint, knock down your bird feeders and kill the birds. Keeping in mind instinctually, cats kill for sport. Beyond that they walk on your patio furniture and rip your pool covers or liners. These cats can also incite attacks between them and your own pets. Who is going to reimburse you for above damages? If you guessed no one, then you are in fact, correct. What can you do to stop this? Deterrents? Citrus? Coffee grounds? A sprinkler system? Do any of these ring a bell? Have any of these things worked? Spay/Neuter we’re told, because the cat’s are destroying your property due to hormones. Well I don’t about you but since when do pets stop needing to go to relieve themselves post spay/neuter? A community cat just has access to a bigger litter box i.e. your property.

As for my experiences, I have a beautiful pond that I put a lot of money and time into perfecting! These nuisance cats have killed my fish, knocked potted plants off my fence into the pond. Using the sand around my pool as a litter box, which my dog has eaten and has had to be treated for intestinal parasites. Pool covers are extremely expensive, and these cats ripped mine and I have no one to go to to get reimbursement for my property damages. Even though I told all this to the people at animal control, they only recommended deterrents to use and buy, and why should I have to do that? I am at a loss for words. I have no rights to my property, and I want to make everyone aware this is more of an issue than they think. All of us can relate to the inflation of everything, this is not an added expense I want to continue to deal with. I pay taxes, I own my home, I deserve a voice!

   Continuing to your other “options”, if you contact Animal Control for a humane trap or you have your own, I advise you, that is not the appropriate place for the feral cats. Anne Arundel County Animal Care & Control, picks up the feral cats, they spay/neuter them, ear tip and vaccinate them. Who’s paying for that, I wonder? Anyway, SAVECATS then picks up the cats and puts them right back where they were trapped. I have contacted them many times due to the nuisance these cats pose, but because the cats are protected under the bill, I am unable to do anything. To backtrack, if you are unfamiliar with SAVECATS they are the group that is spearheading this “program”. I tried contacting SAVECATS ,but none of them live in my area or work close enough to care for these cats. They also told me they knock on doors to find caregivers, but after speaking with some people, that is not true, they only have to put forth a "Good Faith Effort". That's why caregivers can remain anonymous. A “Good Faith Effort”, since when does the health and safety of both public and animals get to be written off as such? Mind you again, if you didn’t prove your animals were up to date on their rabies vaccine and they were running around town...Boom! Fines. That’s right, even if you made a “Good Faith Effort”. That's why caregivers can remain anonymous. I have been in contact with many people throughout the county who are dealing with the same issues and have also been told the same things by Animal Control.

   Let’s delve into the legality issue with the bill. The bill advises that community cats are not exempt from being impounded if they're a public nuisance with several complaints. When I spoke to an employee and informed them of this information in the bill, they stated that per their Administrator, the nuisance cats could be impounded, but SAVECATS could pick the cat up and bring it right back since they could be considered caregivers. Definition time! SAVECATS is technically an animal welfare group not a caregiver.  

   I implore you to help me get the signatures to have the bill amended so property owners have a right to protect their property and a say in not allowing the cats released back in the area. This applies to nuisance/feral cats, ear tipped or not and regardless of if there is a caregiver or not. If caregivers can be anonymous or not exist, or want to complain someone is trapping their community cats, then to me that sounds like they are claiming ownership! How can you have a say over cats that are not yours, and property that is not yours? Caregivers should not have more rights than other property owners and neighbors. If they get a say then we should have the ability and have them reimburse us for the damages. Caregivers should be required to have a license and adequate acreage with a way to keep the animals on THEIR property. A residential area is not the place for these cat colonies.

   Bottom line, I just want my family to be able to enjoy our yard, and the vegetables we’re growing. I want the ability to have my family and friends over and not smell cat urine. Finally I want to allow my dog to run around his yard without having to walk through every time because I don't want him eating cat feces. Most importantly, I want all of these things for you too! It's time to stand up and make those in power hear our voice and demand they listen! Please join me and together let’s get this fixed!