I’m sure many of you have seen the posts on social media that are urging residents to fight feeding bans in their towns. The latest example is Clark Township, where ordinance 22-09 (above) is proposing prohibition of feeding wildlife or stray animals, including cats. The ban often includes a licensing requirement, where any unlicensed cat is a "stray" and subject to impoundment. Any owner of an unlicensed animal is then fined.

This is nothing new—many towns in New Jersey do not permit feeding of wildlife or stray animals and require cat licensing.

Feeding bans aren’t the answer to our feral cat problem. Responsible practices including spay/neuter are. Here's why:

• Feeding bans are a knee-jerk reaction to complaints about “nuisance” wildlife attracted to food placed outside, and an ineffective response to complaints about uncontrolled feral cat populations.
• Stray and feral cats are not wild animals—if their food source is removed, they will travel elsewhere to find a new feeder. They will suffer and some will perish while they do this, but the cats will not disappear as short-sighted town officials wish they would!
• Besides the inherent cruelty of removing a domesticated species’ food source, there is nowhere near enough manpower or taxpayer funding to implement consistent enforcement of feeding bans. “Easy targets” such as low-income residents, elderly residents, people with disabilities or maybe even just the wrong political affiliation end up being disproportionately fined by towns. Landlords have yet another tool to evict people instead of taking on the responsibility of TNR.

The good news? Caretakers of stray and feral cats who spay, neuter, vaccinate, and maintain responsible mealtime practices for their colonies can prevent introductions and even enforcement of feeding bans. “Community cats” are not meant to suffer outside for generations—properly executed TNR is intended to decrease the population naturally until no cats remain. It is far less likely for a neighbor to complain to the town if the population is being controlled and the caretaker is not creating a nuisance through irresponsible feeding habits.

If a town does not receive complaints from residents, they are unlikely to react with feeding bans and licensing violations. In fact, towns are virtually unable to enforce bans already in place unless complaints are received from residents. There is simply not enough manpower or taxpayer support for anything except required responses to residents' complaints. 

Caretakers do not dump food in parking lots and leave messes for wildlife to finish. They feed the cats they have fixed and remove food. Caretakers also do not allow cat populations to balloon into giant colonies, and work to prevent growth of existing colonies through spay and neuter.

Please continue to share this petition if you believe like I do that “caretaking” includes the responsibility of spay/neuter and ultimate reduction of outdoor cat populations on the part of the feeders.