GUTHRIE — A controversial plan to reduce the city’s feral cat population sparked heated words between members of the City Council, which voted to approve it after more than an hour of public discussion Tuesday night.
The 6-1 vote was met with applause from supporters of the community cat management
ordinance, which calls for the animals to be trapped, removed, spayed or neutered, and returned.
Mayor Adam Ropp spoke of an ongoing “feral animal problem” in Guthrie and Logan County that has seen a “significant reduction” because of a Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) program started by Lisa New, the founder of Helping Community Claws and Paws.
Ropp pointed to an area near Interstate 35 with 105 feral cats.
“She reduced them to five,” he said. “This is the effectiveness of the TNR program. I would like to continue this success ... in the city limits.”
Ropp addressed what he called a misconception that the city values animals more than humans by returning the cats where they were found.
“That’s not what this is,” he said. “The return part is to reduce them. It’s called the vacuum effect. “The cats are there for a reason. There’s a dumpster, there’s a trash can or somebody is feeding them or there is a mice infestation.
“If you just remove them, more cats will move in from the outskirts and set up shop. They will breed and they will turn into 90 again. You trap those, you remove them, you’ll have more come in, they will breed and they will multiply again. It doesn’t stop.”
Ropp cited nearly two dozen communities that use TNR programs and said he could not find one community “where it did not work.”
The mayor told residents he understands why some feel like their rights are being “infringed, that these animals have to come back on.”
“We want what you want,” he said. “And you also have to understand the cats are not going to go away. We want them gone, too.”
Ropp proposed a compromise by offering to remove feral cats from neighborhoods and not bring them back.
“But, if weeks later, two weeks later, there’s more cats that come into your area, that proves what we’re saying, that there then is a vacuum. Only then will we do the return program, and we will do that at your consent and scheduling with you and coordinating with you. Nobody goes on to your property without your consent.
“We want the cats gone,” he continued. “We just want to do it the right way that works and in a humane manner.”
More than an hour of public comment followed, but not before Ropp and Councilman Brian Bothroyd got into it after Ropp made a motion to approve one of two draft ordinances and got a second from Councilman Grant Aguirre.
“Why can’t you wait to hear the second (draft)?” Bothroyd asked. “The second only has two modifications in it, very minor.” Ropp said, “I’m opening this up for comments and questions for everybody. I don’t know what your problem is.” Bothroyd responded with, “The problem is you make a motion before we even get to have a conversation about either/or. We had meetings scheduled for a whole group that you canceled, that we could have come in here with one ordinance that we could have agreed upon.”
New addressed the council, telling members the second draft was weaker because it calls for cats to be euthanized if they are removed and an organization doesn’t take them.
“There’s no TNR grant programs that would fund that,” she said. “The first draft is the one we agree with the mayor.”
City Manager Eddie Faulkner pointed to “several different components” of the ordinance and “many different conversations.”
Faulkner described a month’s worth of phone and email discussions between the city attorney and multiple council members, along with several outside meetings.
“It has been difficult to try and make sure that everybody is on the same page at the same time,” he said.
