Animal Services pushes for Lacey Community Cat Program

‘Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate, Return’

Posted

Lacey Joint Animal Services Commission (JASCOM) is lobbying for the new Community Cat Program (CCP) and recommending updates to the Lacey municipal code (LMC).

During the council work session on Thursday, September 22, JASCOM proposed adding the definition of a community cat in the LMCto “any free-roaming cat that may be cared for by one or more residents in the area, known or unknown.”

JASCOM Executive Director Sarah Hock said the program aims to “educate the public regarding humane and responsible co-existence and care of community cats.”

The commission will partner with Best Friends Animal Society (Best Friends) on the implementation of the CCP across all jurisdictions in Thurston County, specifically on funding and training on the following:

  • Education on the benefits and resources for spay/neuter and vaccination;
  • Responsible feeding and management practices for those choosing to care for community cats; and
  • Effective methods to humanely deter and exclude animals from homes, structures, and targeted areas.

The CCP also includes Trap, Neuter, Vaccinate and Return (TNVR) and Return to Field (RTF) programs.

“Communities turn to TNVR and RTF because when confronted with a choice to euthanize most cats or return them to the community where they have been thriving (after being vaccinated and spayed or neutered), the public will choose the latter,” the recommendation read.

Hock said the CCP would decrease nuisance complaints and foster better relationships between the local government and the residents.

Lacey City Council will decide on the recommendation at a future regular council meeting.

Comments

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  • Drutty

    Wonderful news. Best Friends are training all over the U.S. "to save them all by 2025". Happy to know we are joining the movement!

    Friday, September 23, 2022 Report this

  • bobkat

    It is a known and proven fact that feral and free roaming felines heavily impact the bird population. You cannot be selectively supportive of one segment of our wildlife to the detriment of another. While personally I happen to like cats, they do prey on a, just as lovely (and necessary) other segment of our wild population!

    Saturday, September 24, 2022 Report this

  • FirstOtter

    I love cats, have had them all my life. I DON"T let them roam and they're always neutered.

    Releasing a cat into the "area where they have been thriving' is unethical. Feral cats ...and even someone's petty Fluffy who is allowed to roam, kill thousands of songbirds every year. They **** in flower beds not their owners. Even neutered males will spray in areas like the side of your house, your tires, etc. In addition, cats allowed to roam pass on diseases such as Feline Leukemia.

    Remember the shrieking that went on when cats were being found killed and eviscerated? Coyotes were doing that, aand there were people calling for ''managing the coyotes"..by killing them. You can't have your cake and eat it, too. If you don't want to see dead cats on the road or half eaten in your front yard, don't let them roam and for pete's sakes, don't release them 'back into the area they were thriving in"!

    The only way to 'humanely deter and exclude from homes, structures and 'areas' and ''targeted areas" is to not release them 'back into the field' in the first place.

    This is all just gaslighting.

    Saturday, September 24, 2022 Report this