CC Minutes - 06/25/08 Work Session

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Ms. Solomon asked if someone could take their neighbor’s cat in to be spayed or neutered at the City’s clinic. Ms. Walston said a person would need to demonstrate ownership of the animal. Ms. Ortiz was in favor of a TNR program. She asked if live traps could be made available to the public. She said that feral cats presented health hazards to other animals and she would support the suggested motion. Mr. Zelenka objected to euthanizing feral cats. He was interested in a TNR program that was a cooperative effort among jurisdictions and jointly funded. He questioned opposition to microchips, which helped reunite a pet and owner. He was interested in additional information about a cat licensing program. Ms. Walston said a cat licensing program was difficult to enforce and many cats did not wear collars. She said in the City of Eugene the compliance rate for dog licensing was about 40 percent and in the County was 30 percent. She would check on cat licensing programs in other jurisdictions. In response to a question from Mr. Zelenka, Ms. Gaffney said the TNR program had existed for a long time in the community through the efforts of volunteers who worked independently to trap cats and return them. She said the County hoped to develop a larger, systemized program that would utilize volunteer veterinari- ans to perform surgeries, which would greatly reduce costs. She hoped to spay/neuter 20 cats per day when the program was in operation. The Greenhill facility would be used to perform surgeries and volunteers would assist people to trap and transport animals. She said there was a large supply of live traps available. Mr. Zelenka asked if the mobile clinic that used to visit the area and perform surgeries on feral cats still existed. Ms. Gaffney said it did, but no longer visited Lane County. She was pleased to hear that the City of Eugene was interested in participating in the TNR program. Ms. Taylor said that people might be willing to accept a cat licensing program if the revenue was used to support a spay and neuter clinic for feral and domestic cats. Ms. Bettman, seconded by Ms. Taylor, moved to direct the City Manager to bring back a report by the end of the calendar year with recommendations and resource needs to assist local animal welfare groups to address the issue of feral cats. Ms. Solomon asked if LCAS had all of the components in place to implement a TNR program. Ms. Gaffney said it did and the new and exciting component was volunteer veterinarians to perform surgeries. She hoped to start operations on September 7, 2008. Ms. Solomon commented that the TNR program was necessary because of irresponsible pet owners and it was unfair for those owners to pass the burden of addressing the problem to the rest of the community. She hoped that people would accept responsibility when they got a pet. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. MINUTES—Eugene City Council June 25, 2008 Page 2 Work Session