Taming the wild: mayor looks to control feral cat population

Mayor Chris Spearman says it’s time to deal with the issue of feral cats in this area. The mayor is now asking city council to approve $14,000 be spent on trying to curb the rising population of the wild felines.

“We’ve identified that feral cats are moving into the city increasingly and creating colonies,” said Mayor Spearman. “So when they begin encroaching on residential areas, that’s a concern for us.”

These feral cats, who are born in the wild and live without human interaction, can cause serious damage. More cats would mean bigger predators near the city and the possibility of diseases being spread to domestic animals.

The Animal Welfare committee has been meeting for the past ten months to research and execute a plan to control the feral population.

“What we’ll do is trap the cats, we will neuter them, and release them into a non-residential area.”

Dealing with feral cats in this way isn’t a new process. Many other municipalities and cities have seen success over the years using the same strategy. Many veterinarians and animal activists agree that this is the most humane way to control the population.

“It’s a much more humane way to trap, alter, and release and provide some kind of shelter in those areas and some food,” said manager of the Lethbridge Humane Society, Barb Grodzicky. “Gradually the population decreases.”

While there have been calls to simply exterminate the cats, the committee says that is only a short term solution.

“If someone were to just go out and kill them all, there’s just going to be more cats moving in,” said Grodzicky. “People are going to release their unwanted animals, there’s going to be ferals out there they didn’t get, and it just grows and grows and grows.”