Ben Madilynn
AUBURN — The DeKalb County Commissioners Monday adopted an ordinance to establish a trap-neuter-return cat program.
Also known as a community cat program, it is designed to help control and reduce the population of stray and feral cats by sterilizing cats so they no longer have new litters of kittens. Auburn currently has such an ordinance in place.
Courtney Butler of Animal Welfare Alliance, a non-profit in DeKalb County, had asked the commissioners to come up with the ordinance. Through an arrangement with Humane Fort Wayne, transporting, spaying or neutering and returning a cat to the community will cost $45. Cats also will be ear-tipped and vaccinated against rabies.
The ordinance defines a community cat as “a free-roaming cat who may be cared for by one or more residents of the immediate area who is/are known or unknown; a community cat may or may not be feral.”
A community cat provider is defined as “a person who, in accordance with a good faith effort to conduct trap-neuter-return, provides care. This includes providing food, shelter, or medical care to a community cat. However, a community cat provider is not the owner, harborer, controller or keeper of a community cat.”
Outdoor feeding times for community cat providers is limited to the hours of 6 a.m.-9 p.m. daily to avoid nuisance animal feeding, according to the ordinance.
“August 19th was our first round of cats to be taken for surgeries from county residents. Today we took another round, so we’re up to 12 cats that have been completed with surgeries and we will have completed 36 before we get to the end of the year, which is fabulous,” Butler said.
“We’ve had really great community response,” she told the commissioners.
“It’s helped us start a bit more of a partnership with DeKalb Humane and their City of Auburn program too. Together, we’re working to help people that are in predicaments where cats have shown up, cats are breeding.”
In July, the commissioners agreed to contribute $2,000 to the program, which would cover the purchase of 25 traps and the spaying of 25 cats. Monday, Butler asked the commissioners to consider contributing an additional $2,000 for 2025 to allow the program to continue.
“We will have used about $1,600 of the $2,000 you gave us when we do reach December,” Butler said.
She said the program has a demand and surgery spots are booked through January.
“Most cases are residents contacting us that feel cats have been dumped or shown up. In most cases, cats aren’t dumped. They do just find their way to humans, and as we know, they can breed prolifically if we don’t intervene,” Butler said.
“If you guys don’t opt to have funds, we can definitely make the program self-sustaining with an ordinance by asking each person that uses the service to donate the $45 fee per cat. We’re going to keep going either way, but it certainly is a service that every resident we’ve encountered is very appreciative for,” Butler told the commissioners.
“It’s a good program,” said Commissioner Todd Sanderson, indicating his support for continuing to provide funds for it.
He described the program as a “common sense solution.”
“I’m good with that kind of investment,” Commissioner Mike Watson agreed.
The commissioners went on to approve allocating $2,000 annually for the program.
“I think we need to fund this properly to keep it going,” Sanderson said.
“I don’t like to expand government but we’re really not expanding government here. We’re throwing $2,000 at something that would cost us $20,000,” he added.
