Residents, village leaders still working on solution to Cedarville’s feral feline problem

CEDARVILLE — Monday night people in Cedarville got together to talk about the village’s feral cat problem.

A few dozen people went to Monday’s town hall at the Cedarville Opera House.

“We’ve seen them and scooted them out from under our front porch. We see them with prints on the car from their muddy feet and all that kind of stuff,” William Jones a Cedarville resident said.

Jenna Mullins lives in Cedarville she, along with local organizations, has helped reduce the community cat population in the village through trap, neuter and return (TNR) programs.

“It’s not the cat’s fault that they’re here. It’s the community’s fault. Unfortunately, it’s because of humans who have not gotten them fixed,” Mullins said.

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Some proposed having a community-wide TNR program.

Leslie Batta runs Batta Cats, a nonprofit that does TNR in Dayton and surrounding areas.

“I hope that the council does see that TNR does work that we have helped to control that cat population,” Batta said.

Earlier this spring Mayor John Cody said the village got estimates there were as many as 1,000 feral cats in the village last year, but now said that information may have been wrong.

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“I think that the number of cats that we reported was not accurate. I think it’s high,” Mayor John Cody said.

The mayor said past meetings about the issue have been heated, still, he wants to make sure the community gets a say in what happens.

“I think it’s good that we took this pause before this town hall so that people could really gather their thoughts and come up with a good answer to what we’re dealing with,” Cody said.

The mayor said the village may talk about this at the next meeting on how to move forward.

The meeting is scheduled for two weeks.

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