Public hearing on cat law planned for April 6

The Town Board will hold a public hearing April 6 on a proposed law that aims to prevent cats from becoming neighborhood nuisances.

The hearing is to being at 7:25 p.m. in the Town Hall.

Town officials drafted the proposed law after several residents complained that neighbors were feeding stray cats, which, in turn, left excrement in nearby yards.

Sunrise Park resident Dawn DeLuca wrote in a letter to the town earlier this year that a neighbor had been facilitating the growth a feral cat colony.

“I do not think it is my responsibility to have to clean up after them,” she wrote. “I maintain my property and do not think [it] is fair that I have to clean up cat poop and pee . ... If this smelly mess is happening

now in the cold, what will the level of stench be come hot weather?”

The proposed law would prohibit cat owners or “any person harboring any cat” to allow any feline from being vicious, spray or defecate in a “way as to cause annoyance,” cause damage or destruction to property, or remain in the town unless vaccinated against rabies.

Fines under the law would be a $50 fine for a first violation, $150 for a second violation and $250 for each violation after that.

The law also would authorize the town animal control officer to pick up unwanted cats owned by residents who are financially unable to care for them, or

have the cats vaccinated against feline rabies.

Some opponents of the law have cited a provision allowing the town to euthanize cats that are not redeemed by owners.

“We ... are looking more toward not going in the direction of a euthanasia policy or feed ban because those have been shown through empirical data to not be methods that are effective in controlling the cat populations,” Gina Carbonari, vice president of the Ulster County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said a recent Town Board meeting.

Other opponents of the law have noted cats can be useful in pest control.

“Quite frankly, they’ve kept the rodent population down population,” town resident David Argust said at the same Town Board meeting.