Lac La Biche County’ s plans for expanding animal control services to include cats are on the table. As the saying goes, the cat is out of the bag.
Lac La Biche County’ s plans for expanding animal control services to include cats are on the table. As the saying goes, the cat is out of the bag.
Local councillors recently voted to craft a bylaw that will enable cat registry and allow residents to use county-provided traps to catch problem felines.
County documents estimate it will cost $600 to purchase six humane traps, and further costs will be incurred by holding animals at the pound.
Councillor Wanda Austin said the Lac La Biche Regional Humane Society should be included in the county’ s plans because the group does a lot of work to find permanent homes for cats.
“I just can’ t understand why the humane society isn’ t being considered in this,” she said.
Tom Bourassa, who heads the municipality’ s Peace Officer program, said there needs to be a physical building to take captured cats to, which is why the county intends to keep using a local kennel as a pound. Manager of protective services John Kokotilo said organizations like the humane society should be brought to the table to see what roles they can play in the system.
“We’ ll get all the parties together,” he said.
Councillor MJ Siebold, who leads the humane society, left the room before the discussion started last Tuesday to avoid violating conflict-of-interest rules. Earlier in the day, though, two of the humane society’ s ex-board members spoke during a public input session and took councillors to task for not supporting the group. Siebold left the room for that portion of the meeting, too.
Councillor John Nowak said the humane society can and should be involved in cat control, but the municipality has to take action within certain parameters.
“I think there’ s an opportunity for the humane society to get involved after the fact,” he said.
Councillor Dave Phillips said the underlying issue is responsible pet ownership-and the actions the county will take are designed to handle situations that arise when ownership is irresponsible.
“What we’ re trying to do here is deal with a symptom of a bigger problem,” said Phillips.
For registering cats, county administrators are recommending a $10 fee for animals that have been spayed or neutered and a $50 fee for felines that haven’ t been.
Cats that are trapped and brought to the pound will be held for three days. If they’ re untagged and seem to be domestic, efforts will be made to find new homes for the felines. If they’ re feral, it will be up to the pound keeper to either spay or neuter them and then return them to the wild, or have them euthanized and cremated.
County documents indicate that municipal administrators are leaning more towards the euthanasia option, because of the likelihood of feral cats being trapped more than once and pushing costs up.
“If you spay or neuter it and then return it to the wild, you may end up doing the same thing all over again,” said Jeff Lawrence, the county’ s senior manager of community enhancement and recreation.
A draft of a bylaw for cat control in the community will be presented to council at a later meeting.
