TNR forum sparks heated debate over stray cats

My biggest hangup is returning them to the same spot where you had the problem.”

Kevin McKinney

Following an energetic public forum, the Storm Lake City Council had a work session July 1 to discuss the potential codification of a Trap-Neuter-Return program that aims to curtail the city’s stray cat problem. Over 30 people attended Wednesday’s forum, many of whom voiced support or concerns about the proposed cat population control methods. 

The council spent more than a third of Monday’s two-hour meeting debating the merits of a potential TNR program. They ultimately agreed to move forward with the project, so City Attorney Maria Brownell will help to correct and update the city’s newly consolidated animal ordinance. There will be a public hearing for the TNR program on July 15 and the council will do a first reading of the completed ordinance on August 5. The council must have three public readings of the ordinance before it is officially approved. 

Councilperson Meg McKeon proposed in May that the city council incorporate a TNR program in their animal ordinances. “We are hearing continually concerns about the number of community cats, which may or may not be feral in the city,” McKeon said in May. 

The city would not be responsible for funding the program. Instead, it would rely on donations, fundraising and volunteer work. 

Caring Paws Rescue, a group that formed with the intention of establishing a Storm Lake animal shelter, has also advocated for a TNR program. They would organize fundraising efforts and implement the program. Members of the group believe that codifying a TNR program would alleviate the police department’s animal control responsibilities. The rescue group is close to getting their official nonprofit status and exploring shelter construction plans. 

Under the council’s current cat ordinance, it is illegal for a person to return animals to the site where they were trapped. The TNR program would change that. 

Most of those who spoke in front of the council were in favor of TNR, sometimes called Trap-Neuter-Release. If the council eventually codifies the program in the city animal ordinance, citizens with a stray cat issue could call a volunteer to then trap the cat in a small cage. The volunteer would then transport the cat to Lake Animal Hospital to be spayed or neutered, and to receive a health evaluation and any necessary vaccinations, including for rabies and feline distemper.

Debate over “return”

The most debated part of the program is the last step — return. With TNR, once the cat has been fixed, volunteers would return it to the same spot where it was trapped so it can remain with its colony (if it belongs to one) but can no longer reproduce. 

“My biggest hangup is returning them to the same spot where you had the problem,” said Councilperson Kevin McKinney at the public forum. But, McKinney said, “I am not a cat hater, I want to make that clear.”

“The return thing is kind of a problem for me,” said Councilperson Maggie Martinez. She also insisted that people need to learn not to feed stray or feral cats. “There’s mice out there, there’s things that they can eat,” said Martinez. 

While there is no current estimate of how many stray cats roam Storm Lake, local residents from nearly a dozen different streets shared their encounters with the animals. 

Kim Kelly teared up almost as soon as she walked up to the podium last week. “It’s an emotional thing for me,” she said about caring for neighborhood cats. Kelly said she has previously taken in stray cats, providing them shelter in her garage and feeding a select few. 

Kelly and a few others emphasized the need for community education regarding stray cat overpopulation. Sue Lyngaas, president of the Caring Paws Rescue, said she hopes the TNR program volunteers could host educational events about proper pet care and ownership to reduce the possibility of residents dumping or releasing their pet cats. 

Joe Kucera, director of Storm Lake Community Education, provided the primary dissenting opinion at the forum. “I think I’m probably going to have an unpopular opinion on this matter,” he initially stated. 

Kucera voiced particular concern with cat feces on the West Ninth Street Memorial Field, where he cares for the field and coaches little league baseball. Kucera said he has previously closed the fields and chained up privately owned parks due to the amount of feces in the grass — 12 piles at any time, he claimed. 

“I’m having kids play in feces,” Kucera said. “It’s not safe, it’s not healthy, and if I continue to have that problem, I need to eradicate that animal. It doesn’t matter if it’s neutered, it’s still going to go to the bathroom on that field.”

To Kucera, stray and feral cats should either be adopted or euthanized. He wants them off the fields. “As soon as you take emotion out of it, these feral cats are an invasive species,” Kucera said. “They should be removed from the population. They’re not a natural predator in our city.”

Council members addressed Kucera’s comments on multiple occasions during a work session Monday night. 

“I take what Joe Kucera said at heart,” said Martinez. “I get it, it’s not pretty. He doesn’t want cats returning to the fields, but I don’t know that that would necessarily happen, because he might not be calling to have this service done anyway.”

“That’s not where they’re living, that’s where they’re roaming at night,” McKeon said in reference to the baseball fields where Kucera coaches. McKeon said the TNR program wouldn’t affect those cats, “because you have to get the cat at their community. They live in colonies.”

Both Martinez and McKeon expressed annoyance at the prospect of having another work session on TNR. Monday was the council’s third work session. 

McKeon praised the research, efforts and enthusiasm of those who formed the Caring Paws Rescue group after a spring council meeting. 

“It’s not often that we get a group of citizens who bring forward concerns about a problem, as well as a solution, including the willingness to do the fundraising and necessary training and supply the person power to address it,” McKeon said. “If we do not recognize the concerns of the citizens, their willingness to address a problem, then what are we saying for any future issues that people want to bring forward?”

Lake Animal Hospital stressed with stray cats

Hannah Neumann, stray director at Lake Animal Hospital, and Dianne Johnson, the clinic’s veterinarian, also disagreed with Kucera.  

“I know a lot of people are concerned about how it is going to help me, the human,” said Neumann. “But me working at a clinic, I’m more concerned about how it’s going to help the cats themselves, and they’re going to be a lot healthier.”

Dr. Johnson said if a TNR program volunteer brings her a cat, she would spay or neuter them, check for other signs of illness or injury and implant a microchip. 

All trapped and neutered cats would receive a notch on their ear to indicate that they have been fixed. 

According to Neumann, Lake Animal receives one call a week about a new litter of kittens. One litter still had their umbilical cords attached, she said. 

“If we can control the population it’ll cut down on kittens, orphaned kittens, sick kittens,” Neumann said. “It’s a lot of work on our part.”

Neumann said that because some small kittens still need to be bottle fed and monitored often, she and other staff have taken some of the clinic’s kittens home to ensure they receive proper care. She added that not every cat they see is feral, or an unsocialized outdoor cat. The clinic would plan to return feral cats to their trapping spot, whereas they would attempt to put many of the non feral cats up for adoption. 

Amy Von Bank, general manager at King’s Pointe Resort, said that before her years in the hotel business she worked as a vet tech. “Just thinning and relocating does not keep out the problem cats,” Von Bank said.

Both Von Bank and Neumann insisted that if volunteers do not return the cat to its original area, another cat will take its place. Particularly male cats, they said. 

Some citizens present at the forum said that while TNR programs have been proven successful in other communities, it takes time to see stray cat numbers dwindle. 

“It’s not going to be an overnight fix, it’s something that’s going to take a few years,” said Kelly. 

With consistency, persistence and donations to fund it, the program should work, explained Kelly and a few other speakers. 

The city council now awaits corrections to the animal ordinance, including a section permitting the Trap-Neuter-Return project. They will read and discuss the updated policy at a public hearing Monday, July 15.