Funds should focus on spay/neuter

RE: “NEW AWD director should build on progress” (Journal, Jan. 8)

We are very pleased that Paul Caster “resigned.” His “no-kill” policies caused a danger to the public and the suffering of innumerable animals. Animal control officers were told to avoid bringing animals into the shelter — especially cats — in order to lower euthanasia statistics. That left animals to suffer. Progress involves much more than statistics.

The trap, neuter, release program (TNR) doesn’t work. As anyone who lives in one of the cat release sites — such as the Kirtland and Winrock neighborhoods as well as the Coronado Mobile Home Park — will tell you, the cat population only increases because unsterilized cats are drawn to the food.

One of our volunteers who lives in the Winrock area had to watch one of the city-dumped TNR cats die a miserable death for more than an hour in belowfreezing conditions after the approximately 5-monthold female kitten had been hit by a car in the parking lot of an apartment complex. When the animal control officer arrived around 11:45 p.m., he verified that the cat was indeed a TNR cat because she had a notched ear. He said the officers see this tragedy every day.

Of course, our goal is to prevent animals from suffering and rescue those that need our help. However, as private citizens who pay taxes, we do not support the city paying Street Cat Hub — a nonprofit run by one person — more than $100,000/year plus insurance and other benefits just to abandon cats on city streets. That money would be better spent on spay/ neuter programs for people who will be forever homes, not for abandoning cats outside to die. BARBARA TELLIER President, Alliance Against Animal Abuse