What to do about community cats in Cedarville -- That is the question

CEDARVILLE — Battle lines have been drawn in the Greene County village of Cedarville over what to do about community, or feral, cats.

On one side is the village council, which must decide whether to accept or reject three proposed ordinances that seek to build around a program called trap, neuter, return (release) or TNR.

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On the other side are community cat advocates in the village, backed by Alley Cat Allies, the nonprofit animal welfare organization that advocates for reform of public policies and institutions to better serve the interests of cats. An attorney representing the organization argues that the proposed ordinances create cruel and unusual consequences.

Village Mayor John Cody Jr. said he did not become aware of the village’s cat problem until recently, when he received “hard numbers” from a 2022 estimate that there were 1,000 feral cats in the community. When Cedarville University is not in session, population in the village is approximately 4,000, he said, and about 9,500 when students are on campus.

“It’s a sanitary problem because of property damage, disease, a lot of defecation,” he told News Center 7′s Brandon Lewis on Thursday evening. “They cause a lot of problems in this community.”

The goal of the proposed ordinances is to “handle this problem by doing the best thing for both the villagers and the cats.”

Cody said the village looked into and did spend some money on a TNR program, but the village has limited funds.

“It was a nice little trial run,” he said.

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Cedarville wanted to make the TNR program formal, according to village law.

“We have to balance that [TNR program] with existing ordinances and the needs of the property owners who have suffered a lot of property damage,” Cody said.

Under TNR, feral cats are trapped, spayed or neutered and then released into the environment. TNR practitioners hope to slowly reduce populations over time as opposed to immediately reducing numbers through removal. According to the Humane Society of Greater Dayton, TNR “is one of the only proven effective ways to humanely address cat overpopulation.”

Ordinance 2023-06, as drafted, seeks to better define the term “running at large” and would apply to cats not on a leash, not on an owner’s property or not under control of an owner. Cody said, he thinks the ordinance is fine, but notes, “It doesn’t hurt anything to give a better definition.”

Ordinance 2023-07 (nuisance) would no longer allow feeding, watering or harboring” of animals. the goal being to define an existing ordinance by giving specific examples of what animals fall under that ordinance.

“Perhaps that needs some work,” the mayor said of 2023-08, because of a line in the draft that pertains to birds.

Ordinance 2023-08 would allow a person to feed a community cat and not be in violation of Ordinance 2023-07 if the person alerts the village. Cody said that would involve a registration process, “a back door way to allow people to feed the TNR cats.”

DanaMarie Pannella, a Medina County attorney whose clients include Alley Cat Allies, told News Center 7′s Lewis the proposed ordinances create a number of cruel and unusual consequences.

“Mayor John Cody Jr. and council members should drop these ill-conceived ordinances and instead turn to a humane and compassionate approach for animals in the village,” Pannella said in a prepared statement Thursday night. “Feeding bans are inherently cruel to cats who are accustomed to receiving food, and they have already proven not to work in hundreds of other communities. Cedarville leaders are pursuing an idea that modern society realized to be obsolete decades ago.”

The animals-at-large ordinance, as drafted, provides no exception for TNR program, she said. The nuisance code, as written, creates “a number of absurdities in that it is “too vague and also bans feeding of community cats.”

Alley Cat Allies has approached the village to create an effective TNR law, Pannella said, but there has been no response to the organization’s attempt to engage with village government before the ordinances were introduced.

“The language of the ordinance is inconsistent with what the village is trying to do,” she said.

The next episode in the battle moves to April 10, when Cody said he will ask village council to table the ordinances (put them on indefinite hold).

He said he then will schedule a town hall for sometime in May or June “for a more robust conversation with the village” about the proposed ordinances.

News Center 7′s Brandon Lewis will have more on this story tonight at 11.

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