Action postponed on bill regulating cat trapping

Lawmakers postpone action on a bill regulating trap-neuter return programs seeking to reduce feral cat colonies.

Action on a proposed law that would regulate trap-neuter-return programs intended to reduce feral cat colonies has been postponed amid questions about how the law would affect homeowners and whether the law could leave cats to face a fate worse than euthanasia.

The measure was postponed by the Legislature’s Law Enforcement and Public Safety Committee at its June 5 meeting after Legislator Heidi Haynes raised several questions.

The bill is sponsored by Legislator Laura Petit, DPort Ewen. She said the law would protect family pets and feral cats scooped up by organizations or individuals, preventing the adopting out or euthanization of animals.

Among the provisions in the law, organizations or individuals who intend to trap feral cats would have to provide five days’ notice of the trapping activity and would prohibit anyone other than a licensed veterinarian from euthanizing animals. The law also would require anyone trapping cats to release immediately any cats with “tipped ears,” which signifies a cat has been spayed or neutered.

At a public hearing on the proposal in May, lawmakers heard comments from 33 speakers, split nearly evenly, on the proposed law.

During the committee meeting, Haynes said she was concerned that the notification requirement could prevent a homeowner who finds an injured cat on her property from trapping the cat to provide medical care and that registration requirements could infringe on individual property rights. She also said she was concerned that, if only a licensed veterinarian can euthanize cats, then landowners could take matters into their own hands or that sick or injured cats could be left to suffer and die in the wild.

“My biggest fear with this, although it has very good intentions, is people are just not going to follow this and the cats are going to face a worse demise than euthanasia,” said Haynes, IKingston.

The Law Enforcement and Public Safety Committee is expected to again take the proposed local law up for consideration in July.