The Mayor of Randolph, Iowa has offered a 5 dollar bounty for any feral cat that is brought to him alive. An action I find mindblowlingly deplorable. Why not take every five dollar bounty and pay someone to come and do this properly and humanely?
Please join Murray and me and write to the Mayor of Iowa. Let him know that this is a terrible idea.
107 S Main St Randolph, Iowa, 51649
712-625-2601
randolphcity@iowatelecom.netDOES NOT WORK (?)
Mayor: Vance Trively
Even if you are (what CNN so irresponsibly refers to as) a “cat hater” then pretend this is about dogs, hippos, whatever the crap. Members of a community cannot take matters such as this into their own hands. I can’t even imagine what kind of abuse these cats are going to experience, let alone what they could do to the kids looking to make some money.
Please see this link to send a letter via Alley Cat Allies.
Woah! I dated a girl who was from the town next to Randolph. Ironically, her family had at least a dozen cats.
I just see this turning into a nightmare for responsible cat owners who allow their cats outdoors. I suppose if they’re tagged, they should be OK (I hope) but still, people looking for an ‘easy’ $5 won’t hesitate to grab any cat they see and turn it into a headache for the owners who would likely have to go out of their way to claim/retrieve the poor cat.
I’d like to think the cats will be neutered and found good homes but I know better than to count on it.
I have a better idea- why don’t they substantially fine any mother fucker who doesn’t get their cat spayed or neutered.
The story subhead says that the cats will be checked by a vet and offered for adoption. If not adopted within some period of time, they’ll be euthanized.
I’m not sure what the AP’s motivation is in opening the story in such an incendiary and frankly gross manner. Or what the mayor’s problem is. Fund a fucking animal shelter in your backwards little town.
I’ve contacted Best Friends animal sanctuary about it. If you or anyone of your readers can, make a donation to them. I’m giving them $200 to help with this Iowa situation. I’ll let you know when I receive a reply.
Meant to include the URL: http://www.bestfriends.org
I got their auto-responder saying that a real human would get back to me soon. I encourage everyone to contact them as well. The more interest in the situation, the more likely it is to get attention.
Thanks Aimee. I am not sure what else to do! This is sickening. Is animal considered that low? There are so many better ways to get this taken care of. What a sick fuck.
I am really pissed off about this. Annoyed enough to write the word FUCK. FUCK!
I find this horribly depressing.
Why not just trap, neuter and return? What’s so difficult about that? Because they’ll have to spend $ on the neutering? Won’t they have to neuter the cat anyway to have it adopted?
I will write an email and a regular letter as well.
How about starting a chain letter? I would gladly spread that around, too.
Actually, an MSNBC article makes no mention of adoption. They take the feral cat or dog and euthanize it.
here
There are so many cared-for feral colonies in NY. I have mixed feelings about them but clearly to let them live is preferable to extermination! Argh!
I don’t see what the problem is.
a- people kill cows and chickens , and do factory farming. how is this different?
b- as the article said, they’re not killing every cat on sight. he even told people they couldn’t go out and kill cats on their own. his plan is to take wild cats off the streets so they can’t multiply, put them to a vet/shelter for claim/adoption, and will then euthanize + bury.
keep in mind – he’s ‘crowdsourcing’ and essentially doing grassroots organizing and community pitch-in on this. this isn’t a suburb or nyc – there are 200 people in that town. there are that many people in many nyc buildings. rhetorical question: does your block have its own animal control department?
Oh my god. This particularly hits home for me, as my husband and I took in three semi-feral kittens just over a month ago. Even though I am over in Ireland, I will be writing this man.
As for ‘adoption’ of these feral cats. Hm. Feral cats are NOT just domestic cats that you can easily ‘change’ over to being domestics. We got our cats quite young, so there is a good chance that we can socialise them, but even in our instance, it requires lots of love and affection and frustration (and ours are semi-feral! Not even true ferals!). I’m sorry, but I doubt the shelters of Randolph, Iowa are going to spend a huge amount of time socialising feral cats and kittens so they can be adopted out. Hence, they will pretty much ALL be euthanized. So, as someone else pointed out, why not just practice trap, neuter and return? It controls the population and allows these functioning colonies to stay around. I know from my feral cat contacts (I had to do a lot of research before taking our kittens in) that Philadelphia, for example, apparently is very, very supportive of grassroots trap, neuter and return programs. If politicians would give grassroot support for this sort of thing, then I think they would be surprised at how many animal lovers would step up and participate.
As for ‘people kill other animals, what does it matter if we kill cats…’. Wow. Firstly, I am a vegetarian – I don’t approve of the slaughter of ANY animal. That being said, when people do kill cows and chickens and things they are often doing so to you know, eat them. I doubt the fine diners of Randolph will be eating cat in the near future. And of course their not killing every cat on site, but I think the issue that I have with this is that there is the possibility that animals will be tortured or abused in the process of ‘trapping’ them for people to receive their bounty. And, even if you say that they are not authorized to kill them on-site, doesn’t it, in a way, validate people who DO just kill them? I have an uncle who shoots cats on a regular basis. I find it horrible and I actually have not spoken to this uncle in well over 10 years after getting into an argument with him about this. Anyway, isn’t a programme like this, where they are saying they are just going to kill them anyway, somewhat encouraging (or rather, not discouraging) to those who might want to kill these cats?
Jonathan: It’s a misappropriation of public funds that creates an incentive for unqualified people to become animal trappers. This will lead to neglect and abuse not to mention the fact that there’s no guarantee that people will abide by the rules. Who’s to say that someone won’t take a perfectly loved housecat, remove its collar to get more cash?
Come on, Jonathan. I think if you really think about this, you’ll see the problem with it. There are organizations out there he could have called, organizations who do just this and well!
@wendyr
i’m a vegetarian too. which is why i have trouble seeing how people can say “killing this animal is ok. this animal is not”.
@mihow
its not a misappropriation of public funds. this is a city with 200 residents and limited resources – not nyc.
it also means that if someone does take a housecat to get more cash, the owners would complain , go to the mayor, and then the whole town would hate the person who tried to scam this system.
people ‘abiding by the rules’ in terms of animal treatment is kind of an awkward concept i think. how many times do we hear about shelters , farms or slaughterhouses that end up not abiding by the rules?
Got a reply from Best Friends:
Thank you so much for your interest in the situation with the feral cats in Randolph Iowa. Best Friends is working with other groups to present a TNR program to the area as a solution to the feral cat dilemma. We had a representative at the Council Meeting last Thursday night and were successful in getting the bounty on feral cats cancelled.
Best Friends will be meeting with other animal welfare groups to form a specific plan for presentation to the Randolph City Council next Thursday evening. Please do watch or web site for updates on the Randolph Feral Cats, http://network.bestfriends.org/iowa/news/23641.html.
Again, thank you for contacting us about this and for your interest in the welfare of the animals.
True good wishes,
Diane
Diane Young
Animal Help Specialist
Best Friends Animal Society