City officials in New Britain are considering fining people who continually feed feral cats or care for their colonies $99 unless they follow certain rules, but they decided the plan needs more work.
“You don’t want to start criminalizing compassion,” Cathy DeMarco of New Britain, said.
The proposal would have required anyone who provides food, water or shelter for feral cat colonies on a regular basis to have the cats spayed and neutered and vaccinated for rabies on their own expense.
It would also require people who care for the cats to register with New Britain Animal Control, including the location of each colony they regularly provide food for so animal control can keep track of the number of cats and make regular checks on whether any are sick or injured.
During a meeting Thursday night, cat lovers pleaded with city officials not to penalize them for feeding feral cats or caring for feral cat communities.
But frustrated neighbors say the cats are a nuisance and destructive.
“I have a whole bunch of camp gear that I can’t go camping because they went into my garage they tore up all my stuff,” Manny Sandoval, of New Britain, said.
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Police believe people leaving food for the felines sometimes leads to issues, including rat infestations.
“Unless we have some structure in place for how the food is going to be left out, not leaving it out overnight, not leaving a mess, we’re really just leaving ourselves open for complaints,” Sgt. Paula Keller, of New Britain Police, said.
Peter Varhol, a member of Animal Alliance Welfare League in New Britain, reached out to NBC Connecticut’s Connect-a-Thon with concerns about the proposal and attended a meeting Thursday night as city officials discussed the idea.
After hearing from all sides, the consolidated subcommittee decided the plan needs more work before moving forward.
“It’s a win-win for everybody,” Varhol said.
The city will spend about the next month hashing out the plan before it could finally reach the council for a vote.
