BETHESDA, Md. — Alley Cat Allies, the only national organization dedicated to the protection and humane treatment of cats, has issued a statement against a new Landisburg, Pa., ordinance that will have the ultimate effect of killing all of the town’s feral, or community, cats.
Becky Robinson, president and founder of Alley Cat Allies, condemned the new ordinance.
“Catch-and-kill policies such as the one that was just adopted by Landisburg simply do not work as a means to control community cat populations,” said Robinson. “As healthy community cats are removed from neighborhoods, the remaining cats will simply have more kittens. The only solution for Landisburg is to do what hundreds of other communities facing the same situation have already found to be successful: adoption of a Trap-Neuter-Return program.”
Alley Cat Allies has been attempting to reach town leadership for several weeks now to offer its direct assistance in establishing a Trap-Neuter-Return program. Robinson encouraged Landisburg residents to tell the borough council that it must freeze the ordinance.
“We urge town leaders to adopt a humane and reliable solution by taking advantage of the expertise being offered to them by Alley Cat Allies and other Trap-Neuter-Return groups,” she said.
The Landisburg ordinance invites serious questions, such as:
- How do residents purchase a collar and tag from the borough to adequately protect the cats that they care for from euthanization?
- What is the borough doing with cats that have been caught? Where, specifically, are they being taken?
More than 500 communities nationwide, including many in Pennsylvania, have already adopted ordinances or policies supporting Trap-Neuter-Return, and Alley Cat Allies has offered to help Landisburg to pattern its ordinance after those that have already proven to be successful.
