Appoint task force to address Trap, Neuter, Release ordinance in CR

Cedar Rapids’ proposed ordinance regarding Trap, Neuter, Release (TNR) of community cats is a major failure of simple common sense. It will impose a range of crippling restraints on the many Cedar Rapids residents engaged with TNR efforts to control feline overpopulation in our city. The city's proposed ordinance in fact seems designed to ensure that TNR in Cedar Rapids is killed off entirely. There's simply no reasonable expectation that residents currently conducting TNR efforts will be able to adhere to the laundry list of overly complex and punitive restrictions contained in this inexplicably counterproductive measure.

If we want community cat populations to explode as never before by ignoring proven, evidence-based approaches to dealing with the issue, this ordinance will guarantee that outcome and the dire result will be justifiably laid at the doorstep of the current administration.

I'm baffled as to why Cedar Rapids officials haven’t tapped into the lessons learned from successful, long-running, humane TNR policies instituted in surrounding communities. Instead, the city seems to have made a conscious choice to "reinvent the wheel," and in so doing, adopt an overtly backward approach to the issue — an approach that seems almost deliberately designed to produce precisely the wrong result. I urge the mayor and city council to appoint a task force that will reach out to carefully consider the expertise and opinions of local animal welfare stake holders and reappraise this misguided approach to an issue so many residents care so deeply about.

Christian Schoon

Cedar Rapids