A collarless village cat (photo by Will Dendis)
The village of Saugerties will be rounding up feral cats earlier this year than usual, Trustee Donald Hackett said at a Village Board meeting on Monday, June 3. “Usually they begin in August, but I guess we’ve been having a couple issues going on, so I would like to start a little bit earlier,” he said. “I think we have $500 in our budget for that.”
Kim Kelly works with the Woodstock neutering program, Hackett said. The cats are neutered and released near where they were picked up. The cat’s ear is nicked, so if it is picked up again, the “trap, neuter, return” program will know the animal is already neutered.
Last year, the program identified four cats. At $25 per cat caught, neutered and released, the program had adequate funds, Hackett said. However, the year before, the village spent the full $500, catching 20 cats, or possibly even more, which would have busted the budget, he said.
So far, Hackett has received two calls from residents concerning feral cats, and Trustee Jeannine Mayer said she had also received a couple.
“Patrick Landewe and I used to do this [trap cats],” Hackett recalled. “Then Kim came, and she does a great job.”
Kelly notifies the homeowners in an area where she will be trapping before she begins, Hackett said. Cat owners will then know they should keep their house cats in. Should a pet be trapped, the owner should notify the animal shelter to have it returned.
“We have flyers that they put out, so people will know they should keep their cats in, or put a collar on them or some identification,” said Village Clerk Lisa Mayone.
How about Glasco! The. Worlds dumping place for cats!!!
These cats should not be released. They have DECIMATED the songbird population.
Sincerely, a Saugerties Taxpayer.
Exactly what I was going to write. You are right, Saugerties and all municipalities like them are wrong. Feral cats kill not only song birds, but chipmunks, shrews, insects of all color and sizes. Cats are domestic non indigenous alien and un-American species that should be not let loose in the wild to die of sicknesses, starvation and man made accidents.
They do not return “to the wild” but instead are eaten by coyotes, run over, spread toxoplasmosis to the unborn human fetus, bring cat-scratch-fever to children, and use the rest of the world as a litter box.
What is this government thinking? Don’t answer that.
Cats being blamed for decimating bird populations is exaggerated and agenda driven, designed to distract from bigger culprits, such as the PESTICIDE and Telecomunications industry. The sterility causing pesticide poisons people spread mindlessly through their gardens and the impacts of radiation such as what is blasted from celll towers, 5G antennae array and let’s not forget “smart” meters is what is truly decimating bird populations, causing them to even die en masse and fall by the hundreds out of the sky. (Google it, Mysterious Mass bird deaths) but apparently some people just get cross eyed and can’t think straight when it comes to this subject
Sodom was a wicked and evil city destroyed by selfishness for denying refuge to the stranger, selfishness for not feeding the hungry and poor and selfishness for releasing feral cats once trapped.
Cats are always dropped off and they climb up and into everything.. They have gotten under our house and ripped insulation out and cause a lot of damage.. The constant smell of cat urine is awful.. We now put rat poison u set house.. we cannot afford the constant repairs..Every year there are many litters of cats and we are tired of it.. do what you must to control the problem.. They use to catch them, spay,neauter them, cut the ear and release them.. it also would help if people stopped feeding them… Then they would help with mice..
It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.
It’s a sin to kill a cat too.
Then why put them out instead of down? New York state village laws allow for euthanizing domestic cats because of their threat to health, safety and welfare. If the Saugerties village board doesn’t know that clause in the village law books, than the village’s lawyer should?