Cedar Rapids considering rules for controlling feral cat population

CEDAR RAPIDS — A proposed ordinance intended to control the population of free-roaming cats in Cedar Rapids is causing concern among animal welfare activists over provisions that include setting a threshold for ceasing to feed to animals.

The changes, if adopted by the City Council, would make Cedar Rapids one of several cities in Eastern Iowa to adopt rules for “trap-neuter-return” — a common way of keeping community cat populations under control without having to euthanize them.

What is TNR?

“For a long time, the model of managing outdoor populations of cats was essentially to trap and euthanize or trap and relocate those cats,” said Preston Moore, the Iowa director for the Humane Society of the United States. “And what we've learned over the years is that a much more effective way of managing the population numbers over the long term is to trap, neuter and return those cats to where they were. In addition to it being more effective in the long run, it's considered to be more humane toward the cats.”

  Buy Photo

Most of the TNR work is done by volunteers who take charge of the well-being of a colony of cats near their home, usually by leaving out food for the cats and trapping them one at a time to have them neutered. When veterinarians neuter a feral cat, they also will clip the corner of its ear off to make it easily identifiable as a community cat.

Some volunteers also pay to have their colony cats microchipped, so the volunteer can be contacted if the cat is picked up and brought to a shelter.

TNR in Johnson County

In cities without a TNR ordinance, feral cats that are picked up and brought to shelters often will be euthanized. Cats that grow up in the wild haven’t been socialized with people and usually aren’t suitable for adoption, and can be dangerous to other animals in the shelter, said Amy Holcomb, president of the Johnson County Humane Society.

The Johnson County Humane Society does work in cities in the county that have recently added language to their codes legalizing TNR for shelters and volunteers. Holcomb takes care of multiple community cat colonies in Johnson County herself.

Iowa City and North Liberty passed TNR ordinances in 2019, and Coralville passed one in 2021.

Holly Wilkinson, the animal control officer with the Coralville Police Department, said that the feral cat populations in the city already had been decreasing because of more development. But since the ordinance passed in 2021, she gets fewer calls about groups of cats and mother cats with kittens. Most of the cat-related calls now are about single, stray cats.

“If we just get a call for a stray cat roaming around, we'll offer a trap to catch it. If it’s a pet cat, we'll deal with it. If it’s a cat at large or if it's a stray cat, we'll try to see if that has an owner. If not, then at that point it can become a TNR cat,” Wilkinson said.

If a stray cat is captured in Coralville that is sick or injured, it won’t be returned. Cats also won’t be returned if the property owner where the cat was found doesn’t want the cat back on their property, according to the Coralville ordinance. In that case, police will work with volunteers to see if there’s somewhere else the cat can be released.

TNR isn’t encouraged by every community

Not all communities practice TNR.

In Marion, for example, it is illegal to feed and take care of feral cats. But the law is difficult to enforce because people often claim to own the cats they are feeding, said Marion Police Chief Mike Kitsmiller.

“We just don’t have time to do a stakeout to make sure it’s their cats,” he said.

Kitsmiller said Marion doesn’t have much of a problem with feral cats, so the police department doesn’t usually deal with them. If someone complains about a cat being a nuisance, the city has traps that can be loaned so the individual can take the cat to a shelter or release it somewhere else.

“If it’s a cat that happens to be living there and it’s not vicious or bothering anybody, we just don’t do it,” Kitsmiller said.

Hiawatha also doesn’t have a specific policy for feral cats, mostly because the city hasn’t had much of a problem with them, according to police Capt. Pat Kremer.

“We haven't received any complaints about community cats in several years. Our police officers handle animal control calls, and all animals are taken to the Cedar Valley Humane Society,” Kremer said.

What’s different about the proposed Cedar Rapids ordinance?

Animal welfare activists have expressed concerns about a few of the requirements in the proposed Cedar Rapids ordinance, which they say would create unnecessary barriers to volunteers and make their work inaccessible in the city.

The ordinance was presented Sept. 18 to the City Council’s Public Safety and Youth Services Committee by Kelly Kelly, program manager for the city’s Animal Care and Control. Cedar Rapids looked at similar ordinances in other cities across the country and held two public input sessions in May, according to Kelly.

The proposed ordinance would allow for TNR work in the city but only with specific regulations. Some of the regulations line up with rules in other nearby cities, like requiring feeding stations to be at least 150 yards away from city parks, wildlife centers or schools, and requiring that food be put out only during daylight hours to deter attracting other animals.

But other regulations envisioned in the ordinance raised concerns.

One proposed provision is that cat managers be required to stop TNR activities — including feeding the cats — after 90 percent of the colony has been sterilized.

Kelly said during the committee meeting that the ordinance originally had proposed TNR should stop after 80 percent sterilization, but that percentage was raised after concerns were expressed during the community input meetings.

“The goal ideally would be 100 percent, but I also know over the years of being with animal control that I can’t always tell an orange tabby from the next one, so some cats may be missed here and there for the TNR,” Kelly said.

  Buy Photo

Holcomb said she believes stopping feeding would be inhumane after the cats have learned to rely on food being provided, and that it would not be as effective in reducing colony numbers.

“None of us who do TNR would ever just stop at a colony when we feel like we’ve done enough, because we know that the population will continue to grow again … and the idea of not feeding the cats after they’ve been fed, it would just make them roam and get into people’s trash and become more of a nuisance,” Holcomb said.

“We love these cats. I don’t think people understand how much we love them. If they tell people to stop feeding them, that’s just not something that we can even think about doing.”

  Buy Photo

Another proposed rule of the Cedar Rapids ordinance is that anyone performing TNR would have to be licensed as a feral cat manager and have liability insurance to cover any injuries or problems caused by the TNR activities or the TNR cats.

Feral cat managers would be required to register their name and contact information with the city, as well as provide the location of their colony. They’d also be required to register each cat in the colony, including the cat’s physical description, vaccination records, sterilization records and microchip information, and give an annual report on the number of cats in their colony, including how many have died and how many new kittens there are.

Angela Brecht, a volunteer who does TNR in Cedar Rapids and who spoke during public comment at a Sept. 26 City Council meeting, said she is worried these restrictions will discourage people from participating.

“The average person isn’t going to jump through all these hoops. They just want to fix the couple of cats that showed up in their backyard,” Brecht said at the meeting.

During the Sept. 18 committee meeting, Kelly outlined the reasoning behind some of the regulations, including that keeping data on how many feral cats are in the city will help city leaders know if the program is working or needs to be adjusted.

Kelly also said the form required to become a feral cat manager would easily be accessible in-person and online and have less information to fill out than on the city’s current animal adoption application.

“It will be used to contact feral cat managers when a feral cat is brought out to the shelter that may not have been sterilized already. We can see who’s TNRing in the area,” Kelly said. “It also allows us to know where those feeding stations and those colonies are, so that way if a community member calls with concern about those cats in their area, we can do education.”

  Buy Photo

Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell said during the Sept. 26 council meeting that members were scheduled to take up the ordinance at an upcoming meeting, it was pushed back so further discussions can be held with those concerned about the proposes rules.

The Humane Society’s Moore said he’s been talking with city leaders about the ordinance. While he understands the reasoning behind some of the proposed regulations, he hopes some — like the ceasing of feeding and the requirement to have liability insurance — can be adjusted.

“As far as I am aware, I don’t believe there is any liability insurance that exists for programs like this. … I understand, I think, what the intent of it is, but I don’t know that it’s a realistic possibility, just because I don’t think there are insurance programs,” he said. “I think that this could end up being a good program, but there are a couple of adjustments that I think we would like to see made before we would be fully supportive of the ordinance.”

Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com