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M I N U T E S <br /> <br /> <br />Eugene City Council <br />McNutt Room—City Hall—777 Pearl Street <br />Eugene, Oregon <br /> <br /> June 25, 2008 <br /> Noon <br /> <br />COUNCILORS PRESENT: Bonny Bettman, Chris Pryor, Betty Taylor, Jennifer Solomon, George <br />Poling, Andrea Ortiz, Mike Clark, Alan Zelenka. <br /> <br /> Council President Chris Pryor called the work session of the Eugene City Council to order. He noted that <br />Mayor Piercy was attending a utility conference and speaking on Eugene’s <br />pursuit of sustainability. <br /> <br />A. WORK SESSION: <br /> <br />Feral Cats <br /> <br /> <br />City Manager Jon Ruiz introduced Mary Walston, City Manager’s Office, to discuss the topic of feral cats. <br /> <br />Ms. Walston stated that the work session was held at the request of Ms. Solomon because of the large <br />number of feral cats in her ward and the problems they were causing. She said there were requests to <br />include other problem animals, such as raccoons and nutria, but these animals fall under the jurisdiction of <br />Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. This could be the topic of another work session. Also, the <br />direction to work with Lane County Animal Services (LCAS) limited this conversation to cats. She said that <br />feral cats were defined as the offspring of abandoned cats and typically formed colonies. She said colonies <br />continued to breed and the cats frequently had diseases that could spread to household pets. She said that <br />LCAS had previously accepted feral cats and euthanized them, but was now working with community <br />groups to develop a trap, neuter and return (TNR) program. She said the City operated a self-supporting <br />spay/neuter clinic, but did not handle feral cats. She said cats had no legal status as there was no licensing <br />program in the City or the County. She said some people had objections to a cat licensing program, or a <br />microchip program, but there were examples of successful programs in other communities. She said the <br />agenda packet contained information on several approaches to dealing with the problem of feral cats. <br /> <br />Ms. Solomon said many of her constituents were concerned with the problem of feral cats. She struggled to <br />distinguish between a feral cat and a neighbor’s cat that was a nuisance. She agreed that the community <br />would not accept euthanizing as a solution and appreciated the information about options. She felt the TNR <br />program had promise. Ms. Walston said she understood that LCAS was working with local veterinarians <br />who were willing to donate their services and Greenhill Humane Society had been asked about using its <br />spay/neuter surgery space. She introduced the Assistant Director of Lane County Department of Health and <br />Human Services, Karen Gaffney, who was managing LCAS and available to answer questions. <br /> <br />Ms. Solomon said she would support the City’s participation in a program but did not want the City to be <br />the sole funding source. She wanted the City’s contribution to result in a specific number of cats that had <br />been spayed or neutered. Regarding the 3,500 surgeries performed by the City’s Spay and Neuter Clinic <br />last year, she asked if those cats were all from Eugene. Ms. Walston said that was her understanding, but <br />she would research the question. <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—Eugene City Council June 25, 2008 Page 1 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br />