MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) - An older White City woman had a big heart for cats - too big as it turns out. She ended up with dozens and dozens, maybe as many as 100, and while she fed and cared for them, it became overwhelming.
“I’m really not a cat person. I never owned cats,” says the woman, who is not accused of any wrongdoing and asked not to be identified. “I didn’t know how they bred. I started counting one night while I was feeding them, and there was more than 60.”
Several years after the woman started feeding stray felines in the area, they began to follow her home. Before long, it became a boardinghouse of dozens, reported the Mail Tribune (https://bit.ly/2b6oKWl).
“I made a ritual of all the porch cats in White City. I just felt sorry for them,” she says.
“They started multiplying and it was a huge mess,” says friend Brent Wheelwright, who estimated there were once 100 cats at the residence. “She’s spending all her time feeding cats and taking care of litter boxes. That becomes your whole life … She loves the cats and was trying to do the right thing.”
But it became too much to keep up with and in July several animal organizations stepped in to help her, with free sterilizations and adoptions.
White City dilemma
Jackson County Animal Services shelter manager Barbara Talbert says her office was aware of the situation, with five cases reported and investigated on the property. Callers estimated the number of cats at between 50 and 75.
Mike Slusarczyk, Jackson County Animal Services officer, says his first encounter with the White City woman was in August 2014, at which time he provided her with information on Spay & Neuter Your Pets (SNYP), a low-cost nonprofit animal sterilization organization. A caller had complained that the woman had more than 20 cats.
In January 2015, Slusarczyk received another report on the house. He says he saw no evidence of neglect - all the cats were fed, housed and cared for - except for a few ill animals that he requested she take to a vet. When he followed up, she produced proof that she had sought treatment for the cats as instructed, and the case was closed by May.
“There’s always concern when you see the number of cats that (she) had,” Slusancyzk says. JCACS told the woman she could surrender her cats so they could be evaluated for adoption at the shelter.
But the woman feared her cats would have been euthanized if they were not quickly adopted, and declined to surrender them.
According to Slusarcyzk, that fear was unfounded.
“If the cat can be safely handled and adopted out … we don’t ever euthanize for space or for time,” he says.
The White City resident and animal control were at a stalemate.
Animals groups step in
In June 2016, JCAS enforcement supervisor John Rhodes investigated another complaint on the property. He says he observed only a few cats, none of which appeared sick. The complainant no longer wished to be involved in the process, and because Rhodes witnessed nothing concerning, the case was closed.
“Animal control offered her no reasonable solution and turned a blind eye,” Wheelwright says. A few weeks ago, he says, he went to JCAS on the woman’s behalf and was referred to SNYP and Committed Alliance To Strays (CATS). Since then, various shelters and nonprofits have been involved in tackling the White City case.
So far, about 40 kittens have been taken to get sterilized and returned to the property, according to the White City woman. Two cats were euthanized because of serious medical problems. Several more have been adopted, and according to CATS, five of them are on the waiting list to be put up for adoption in the shelter.
Wheelwright says the massive project of sterilizing and adopting out the cats will probably take several months to complete.
“This should’ve been done a long time ago,” Wheelwright says. “Every county should have a plan for taking care of something like this. There should be a solution.”
The larger problem
The White City case is one of many in a larger systemic problem plaguing Jackson County and most communities. The issue of stray cats is enmeshed in a web of public and private services, regulations and ordinances.
“It’s a big deal,” says Slusarczyk. “It’s something we deal with on a regular basis.”
He says Animal Services finds itself in a gray area when trying to enforce animal care standards with cats. Unlike dogs, cats are harder to pin down to a particular owner. Although not the legal definition, Animal Services and shelters define an owner as someone who has fed a cat for more than one month.
“People say, ’Oh, that’s not my cat, I just feed it so it won’t starve,’” Rhodes says. The county requires that all pets adopted at shelters be spayed or neutered within a month of adoption or 6 months of age, but there is no such requirement for a non-adopted pet. Sterilization is harder to enforce for young cats when ownership cannot be proven.
“What we do with dogs in the community, that’s pretty regulated,” says Talbert. “But cats have very little regulation.”
Dogs in the county must be licensed, with the accompanying fee helping to fund shelter and care for stray dogs. Cats are not licensed, so there is no similar fund to offset the sheltering costs.
To provide care for felines, the JCAS shelter charges a $10 fee to turn in a stray cat and a $60 fee for a cat surrendered by its owner.
According to Talbert and Slusarcyzk, in the White City case in 2015, JCAS offered to evaluate two or three cats a day for the same fee, a figure that would offset shelter costs but be less burdensome on the owner.
“It was a great deal, and we were pretty excited,” Rhodes says. At $60 for three cats, it would have cost the woman $1,000 to surrender 50 cats or $2,000 for 100 cats. Wheelwright says it was not possible for her to come up with that much money.
Lack of resources common
At shelters, extremely ill cats require additional resources to treat, and even if they recover, there’s no guarantee they’ll be adopted. It’s a numbers game, and Talbert says when a cat is unlikely to recover, the decision may be made to euthanize, preserving the resources for cats with better chances.
Lack of resources seems to be the refrain. The shelters get especially crowded during kitten season. The CATS shelter currently houses 72 cats; another 60 kittens are being kept in foster homes until they are old enough to be put up for adoption. JCAS is currently “maxed out,” Talbert says, and the shelter will likely be full until October.
For those who have taken to feeding or housing stray cats, animal services reaches a dead end when there is no violation. Unless an animal is neglected or abused, animal control officers have few options.
“It falls on the willingness of the owner to comply,” Slusarcyzk says. “We don’t have any recourse. We run into this especially with cats; it becomes a rapid problem. It ties our hands with what we have the ability to do.”
Slusarcyzk would like to see more done on the legislative side to address the problem. He says Jackson County is considering a trap-neuter-release program, but agrees there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.
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Information from: Mail Tribune, https://www.mailtribune.com/
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