NEWS AND COMMENT: The video tells the story nicely. I can't guarantee that this video will stay on this page forever. If it disappears I'm sorry. North Haven is approx. 100+ miles northeast of New York City.
The nub of the story is that the authorities in North Haven, Connecticut, USA were receiving complaints about feral and stray cats in their community and there was a decision, it appears, to trap and euthanise i.e. kill these cats but then this story rattled around social media, particularly Facebook as I understand it, and the community reacted to the news by rejecting the concept of euthanising these cats. There are better solutions. They are correct.
This information was fed back to the authorities and they responded wisely and sensibly by changing their policy and the animal shelters in the area, the non-profits, have also stepped up to help remedy this situation. That's what I get from the video. I will add some detail from the written word on Yahoo News!.
A New Haven councillor has confirmed that they will not be euthanising feral cats after animal control declared that they would euthanise feral cats after trapping them.
Animal control in New Haven post on Facebook on Friday that they would start trapping euthanising the cats at the beginning of October. The post was then deleted apparently after a community backlash in comments.
I like that! The community often rallies around when there is an injustice about to be perpetrated towards animals. Essentially, the American citizen is sensitive towards animal welfare. There are many millions of Americans who are very tender towards stray and feral cats. Often they become volunteers in TNR programs and help them directly. These are great people. They deserve all the praise in the world.
The police stated that the trapping of the cats was "prompted by complaints of feral cats in the area, causing unsanitary conditions, as well as danger to domestic animals."
Apparently a dog had their eye scratched by a cat that attacked it. Comment: that wouldn't surprise me because the cat was in a defensive mode and attacked the dog because they felt threatened. And when a cat attacks a dog they slap the dog around the face with their claws which clearly in this instance caused an eye injury. This is unsurprising. I don't think it is a reason to trap and euthanise cats! And clearly the community agrees with me.
Police in general are often a bit negative towards feral cats. And in this instance they said that feral cats are carrying diseases like rabies in toxoplasmosis and damaging gardens, lawns and flower beds and cars et cetera. Comment: one can paint a negative picture about feral cats. It's quite easy. But you have to go back to the original root cause which is careless human cat ownership. The problem is a human problem and therefore the problem needs to be fixed humanely. Often the police are unaware of this.
Anyway, the end result as I understand it is a good one. The cats will be trapped but taken to shelters where if possible they will be rehomed. Some of these cats will be stray domestic cats and therefore can be rehomed. The true adult feral cat will probably be euthanised although even adult feral cats can be socialised but it takes time, sometimes as long as 12 months or more which is going to be beyond the means and abilities or capacity of the animal shelters but perhaps individual volunteers might step up.
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