Inching closer to a cat plan in L.A.

AFTER 10 YEARS, THERE’S HOPE FOR ENDING THE INJUNCTION AGAINST TNR

The city of Los Angeles has been prohibited from funding — or even promoting — trap-neuter-return (TNR) activities for nearly 10 years, due to an injunction against it. It started when a small group of conservationists sued Los Angeles Animal Services (LAAS) claiming that their TNR program violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and that the city needed to conduct an environmental impact review to comply with CEQA.

The conservationists sued because they believe that TNR negatively impacts wild animals (even though numerous studies show such programs reduce the number of free-roaming cats over time). As a result, a state court judge issued an injunction preventing LAAS from conducting, supporting or referring people to TNR groups. Many groups, including Best Friends, have been striving to lift the injunction since it was put in place.

Admittedly, progress in fighting the injunction has been slow. Recently, though, an important milestone was reached when the city’s Bureau of Engineering issued a draft environmental impact report (DEIR) outlining the long-awaited Citywide Cat Program. The report shows that the proposed cat program, which includes TNR, will produce “no significant and unavoidable impacts” on the natural environment. This is a point that Best Friends and others have made all along — that the environmental impacts associated with spaying or neutering L.A.’s community cats are, if not negligible, more than offset by the numerous well-documented benefits of a robust TNR program.

In fact, the injunction against citysupported TNR has failed to help wildlife in any meaningful way and has led, it seems, to a steady rise in the number of cats in the city. The number of unweaned kittens coming into city shelters went up 21% during the first seven months of 2019 when compared with 2018 numbers, and was projected to top 12,700 for the year. Under the injunction, not only is TNR work not allowed in city shelters, city employees aren’t even allowed to give out information to the public about TNR. All told, there’s a desperate need for targeted, effective cat spay/neuter programs in the city.

The city’s proposed program

The proposed program has some good elements, such as allocating funding for approximately 20,000 spay/neuter surgeries annually for L.A.’s community cats. And Los Angeles Animal Services will be permitted to work with TNR groups to target spay/neuter efforts.

Unfortunately, however, the news isn’t all good. Under the city’s proposed program, TNR work would be restricted near environmentally sensitive areas, affecting about 39% of the city. In Los Angeles, where dense residential areas press up tightly against what’s left of natural areas, these zones will make effective TNR efforts virtually impossible in the places where they’re most needed. And proposed feeding restrictions throughout L.A. would further hamper the work.

Next steps

Best Friends has retained attorneys who are experts in California’s environmental laws and are advising on the complex process. Our advocacy team read through the lengthy DEIR and carefully analyzed the impacts. Based on that analysis, Best Friends submitted detailed comments, just as we have in the past. And we’re working closely with our NKLA Coalition partners — the group of like-minded organizations committed to ending the killing of animals in the city’s shelters — on a coordinated effort, since the injunction has been the single largest barrier to achieving no-kill for cats in Los Angeles.

Sometimes the best approach is to break through barriers. But for the past 10 years, we’ve been forced to work around the injunction and try to save as many cats as possible. This latest development brings us closer than ever to opening the floodgates of spay/neuter for community cats in L.A. That day can’t come soon enough.

The injunction has been the single largest barrier to achieving no-kill for cats in Los Angeles.

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