Wichita city council members are looking over a proposed ordinance to allow for a trap-neuter-release program to reduce the numbers of stray cats in the community. The ordinance was presented during a council workshop meeting Tuesday.
Stephanie McCurdy, who chairs the city’s animal control advisory board, said a trap-neuter-release program is a way of reducing the outdoor cat population and easing the burden that stray cats can put on community resources, like shelters. She said six to eight million cats and dogs enter shelters across the U.S. each year, and over half of them are euthanized, according to a 2013 statistic from the Humane Society of the United States.
McCurdy said local rescue agencies have already increased efforts to trap stray cats, neuter or spay them, vaccinate them, and return them to their neighborhoods. She said the programs are effective in cities across the country because they help with long-term management and reduction of feral cat populations, and they also address public health and safety concerns for neighborhoods. McCurdy said a recent community survey found that the city should take a more active role in helping neighborhoods with concerns over stray cats, so an ordinance was drafted for a trap-neuter release program.
Wichita police captain Chester Pinkston said having an ordinance can help local rescue groups in applying for grants and donations to continue their efforts. He said as the groups have been working with more cats, the city has seen a decline in the cats that have had to be euthanized at the city’s shelter. McCurdy said in 2013, the city euthanized 2,961 cats, which was 66 percent of the cats brought into the shelter. In 2014, the city euthanized 2,353, or 55 percent. In 2015 the number was 2,118, or 46 percent. In 2018, the city euthanized 920 cats, or 25 percent of the population brought to the shelter.
The ordinance creates definitions for feral and community cats and calls for registration of cat colonies in neighborhoods, with yearly reporting requirements. It will go to the district advisory boards for more discussion and then it will return to the city council at a later meeting for a vote.
