Nienhueser: 'We can't be irresponsible' pet owners

Ron Meyers, Vice President of Wagon Tails Animal Rescue, was the first to speak at the City of Sidney City Council meeting this Tuesday about the proposed new cat licensing ordinance.

He addressed the council on behalf of the rescue organization because those who wanted to voice their opinions could not attend the meeting.

“One of the concerns at the meeting was that it is impossible to keep cats in owner’s yards,” he said.

“They are concerned about the cost of spaying and neutering and vaccination, plus a license fee. The city does not have the budget to pay for boarding and euthanizing fees involved with those cats that are captured,” continued Meyers. “They don’t want to lose them just because they can’t afford them.

“They also are questioning the cost of enforcement.”

Meyers also said that members of the organization said that cats can lose their vaccination tags very easily when out “in the wild,” and it would be very easy for them to lose the only thing that may deem them vaccinated.

He also mentioned unappealing animal pound statistics.

“Shelter statistics have been uncovered that show 70 percent of cats that have been brought into pounds are killed with only about a 2 percent reunion rate back to their owners,” he said.

Meyers also said that they are concerned the licensing costs will not cover the cost of the licensing program and that other cities have found cat ordinances to be a burden in the past.

“Cities have repealed cat licensing ordinances in other areas because the city found them impractical, unenforceable and effective and unfair to taxpayers,” concluded Meyers.

One Sidney citizen, Ken Geu, said that although he agrees with licensing to a degree, he feels that there are many things wrong with the proposed ordinance.

“It would good to know if they are getting their shots and to know how many there are,” said Geu. “However the enforcement of the ordinance as it is written I am very concerned about. I think imposing this ordinance on existing cat owners would be extremely unfair.”

Current law states that each resident can have up to three cats and three dogs total – no more.

“I use to have some indoor cats,” said Geu. “They never intentionally got out but as much effort as it was to keep our two cats inside I would say it’s almost a total impossibility to keep a cat indoors that has lived inside and outside for five to ten years of it’s life.”

Geu said that the costs that could come of owner’s cats being captured and returned could add up to a horrendous bill.

“You are saying any cat owner in Sidney is most likely going to pay a fee of up to $200 potentially on a weekly basis to get their cat back,” he said.

“I don’t think that is fair. In that respect, I can see some modifications in saying the existing population is grandfathered in.”

Geu said that he likes the idea of micro chipping and the idea of reunited cats with their owners, just not the cost of the process.

“I’m a proponent of micro chipping because that ultimately can reunite people with their pets because they can lose their collar,” he said. “But I am a little bit concerned about the micro chipping price and fees.”

Diane Englund, another concerned citizen, said that she looked into the animal neutering costs from veterinarians in Sidney.

“For a male cat to be neutered $95 is the cheapest and for a female is $200 at one and $130 at another,” she said. “Rabies shots are $13 and chips are $65. A lot of people live on limited income, so who is going to help them pay to keep their pets safe?”

Geu said that the new ordinance, as it reads now, could deter people from living in Sidney.

“There is the issue that we are trying to get new people into the community and I think that an ordinance on cats is very unique,” he said. “Somebody is going to move into the community and they are going to let their cat out and they are going to be really disgusted with Sidney that they just moved to.”

Give Them Shelter

One reoccurring theme during the night’s discussion was the lack of an animal shelter in Sidney.

“I’m also concerned that Sidney does not have the facilities to house these cats,” said Geu. “I don’t think Sidney has the resources to reunite cats with their owners, and I guess I also view that the issue with feral cats is a separate issue from what most of you would consider pets.

“In the ordinance it says if you feed a cat for 10 or more days (you are it’s owner). Is that consecutive days? Is that 10 days per year? Is that 10 days in my lifetime as a resident of Sidney?”

“The solution is a shelter in this town,” said Englund. “I have always been amazed that a town of this size, which we are trying to be a perfect community not a real community, has never had a shelter. You ask why feed an animal that is a stray - why not?”

Geu also said that if cats and dogs are stated to be treated the same in the ordinance then they should be treated the same in all situations - even capture.

“I believe that when dogs are at large if somebody reports that the dog is out running they are usually concerned about the safety of their kids because there is a Great Dane running down the street,” he said. “So the officer goes out and catches the dog. I would imagine that it will come more in the form for cats that they are going to set traps and bait the traps.

“I don’t believe that we have ever set traps and baited dogs to catch them. We are trying to keep dogs and cats the same, which in some ways makes sense. But setting traps and luring cats so that you can catch them I think is also an unfair differentiation between dogs and cats.

Geu also asked whether the other animals he might feed are considered his pets as well under the new proposed ordinance.

“In certain places it talks about other types of animals. Does it make it a pet if I feed the cat? It might if I put food and water out for the cat. I put a heated pad out for the feral cats, so are they my cats now? I might do this for the squirrels. I might feed the squirrels, I might feed the birds.

“Am I now the owner of these squirrels that go and naw on my neighbor’s house or birds that poop on my neighbor’s car?”

Geu said that he is completely against the trapping of cats, and that if a “grandfathered cat” is caught that they should be immediately released at the same location they were found or the owner’s house.

“There is also the issue of humanely capturing the animals,” he continued. “So if you are setting traps for the cats are you going to continuously monitor the trap? Check it in the morning and check it at night? Well if that cat has been in this cage for eight hours in the middle of the day with the sun, then that’s probably not humane.

“I cannot imagine that it is worth City of Sidney resources to have somebody check every trap every half hour continually to ensure that if an animal is in there it is not suffering.”

“How would the grandfathering of cats work,” asked council member Joe Arterburn.

“I would say anybody that licenses a cat within the next six months. Personally I would microchip them and if you catch this cat you would return it no fees,” said Geu. “You wouldn’t charge it for being at large, but yet you could return that cat or rerelease that cat.”

“Maybe put in the age of the cat,” said Robin Geu. “I mean if you have a 10-year-old cat that has been an in-and-out cat when this law goes into effect, grandfather them in but if it is a kitten then don’t.”

Protecting Property

“I guess I look at it as more of an issue of trespassing,” said City of Sidney Mayor Wendall Gaston. “A property owner as such has the right not to allow someone to trespass – if that be a dog and this came up now as a cat.

“I guess I look at this more as a way to protect the cat owner from just saying ‘Okay, that guy can trap the cats and get rid of them because we don’t have an ordinance to get ahold of the cat owner at all now.

“And if he is trespassing and at large, which right now is not legal, then they may have a right to dispose of that cat. So I think this does as much to protect the cat owner.

“If you let him out and he wanders around and is trespassing that’s the issue,” said Gaston. “If you don’t want to protect your cat than I have no issue with not protecting your cat, but we are going to look at some way of preventing cats from trespassing on people’s property that don’t want them.”

Council member Chris Gay asked Geu how many cats he currently has.

“Well none, but it depends,” Geu responded.

“Under the new ordinance we may have 100 cats - I don’t know. They are all feral cats but we do put food out. We put out water in a heated water bowl for stray cats and we feed them.

“There are three there that are the regularly, two that are there pretty much all the time, and several of them are back from when years ago with a previous council we were involved with the cat trap and release program,” he said.

Geu said that under that program they trapped close to 50 cats in the Sidney area and took them to Ft. Collins to get them spayed and neutered and shots administered.

“We can’t touch these cats. One of them you can probably get within 5-feet but the others they see you and they are gone,” continued Geu.

“But under this ordinance we are responsible for those cats, and we are responsible actually for our neighbor’s cats. Multiple people feed these cats. So some of these cats by this ordinance probably have 10 owners.

“I also feed a possum, and once in awhile we probably own a skunk by this ordinance,” he said.

Geu said that he originally fed and cared for the cats because some were sickly and needed medical attention.

Gay asked what would happen to the cats if Geu quit feeding them.

“They would probably go eat at the neighbors and would potentially start killing birds. They would possibly starve to death and we would have more of a mice problem,” said Geu.

Another concerned citizen, Maria Herrara, said that she has rescued abandoned kittens that now have more than one home.

“I have been rescuing abandoned kittens,” she said. “I think I have took a couple out of a dumpster and some that were left by people who had moved. There are three different homes within a two-block area and I think we all feed these cats.

“The cats are going in one door and out another after they have eaten, and as far as I know they hurt nobody, they bother no one in our neighborhood and I would like to see the existing cats grandfathered in.

“We would like to be able to keep the ones we are sharing with two other neighbors. So I don’t really know who is going to own which cat. Also we don’t know how to keep a cat from leaving the yard.”

Finding A Solution

Englund proceeded to ask the council members how many kids they have.

“To some people a four-footed animal who is height challenged, voice challenged and furry is a kid,” she said. “Now if your child steps on your neighbor’s yard it is considered trespassing. Do you want your child captured, cages and put in a kennel?

“If you are not going to provide a facility for abandoned animals you cannot sit there and consciously say ‘Don’t feed them.’”

“I think that a shelter would definitely be a plus for the community and solve this problem, but how long away are we from having a shelter?” asked Arterburn.

“In the mean time citizens are complaining about the herds of cats.”

“Education,” said Robin Geu. “Teach them how to get a cat to stay out of their yard, and that doesn’t include shooting them. There are things to do to deter them from your yard.”

“Basically we’re visiting this ordinance because people are complaining about being able to protect their property, which they have a right to do, and to voice the problem of feral cats,” reiterated Gaston.

“Obviously we have to license them to know which ones are pets and which ones are feral. What we do with the feral cats is a great debate. But at some point I do think we have to allow people to protect their property,” he said.

“If you are worried about trespassing then you have to include the birds and the robins,” said Ken Geu. “Feral cats are the same as a wild animal.”

“I don’t think we have to do anything but look at cats,” replied Gaston.

“It will take a few years to reduce the number of feral kitties, but eventually it will come down,” said Robin Geu. “Before you adopt something like this you have to have a shelter - even if it is someone’s garage. The vets don’t have a place to put those critters.”

“This was brought up to council I don’t know how many weeks ago,” said council member Mark Nienhueser. “We have people with numerous cats disrespecting their neighbor’s property.”

Nienhueser continued that is seemed obvious from those in favor of the cat ordinance that if nothing was done to combat the problem, the citizens would take care of it themselves.

“People need to step up and be responsible if they want pets,” he said. “We need to find some middle-ground. If you are going to live in the city be respectful of your neighbor. If you cannot do that you’re going to have to pay the consequences - whether it’s a fine or whatever. It’s what we accept when we move to the city.

“If a neighbor has a complaint against your critter you need to take action, whether it’s my dog or your cat. We can’t be irresponsible. We agreed to do that as citizens of this city.”

Nienhueser added that he understands that the council is a long way from making a decision and that he understood the ideas coming from both sides of the issue.

“I challenge the people who came tonight to help us come up with a solution,” said Gaston.

The matter was tabled until both council members and citizens have time to think of a more compromising ordinance.