Council approve plan to spay and neuter feral cats.
The City of Woodstock has a feral cat problem.
As it stands now, the City is spending more than 60 thousand dollars a year on cat control which represents 56 percent of the animal control costs.
Thursday night, City Clerk Louise Gartshore proposed council approve a cat control program on a small scale at a cost of $6000 which would go toward spaying and neutering cats.
Gartshore says changes needed to be made to the current system.
"We don't want to hold them for three days before we neuter them because recuperation time can be up to five days so we want the boarding cost to go on the recoup time not before we do that. We have to eliminate the cat bylaw to do that and it wasn't doing what it was intended to do anyway."
Gartshore suggested a small scale cat control program instead.
"$6000 will be used exclusively for neutering and spaying cats. So when that is done and used up we wont spend anymore money on it in 2014."
Three veterinarians in the City have agreed to provide spaying or neutering services for $130 for females and $50 per male. Gartshore has requested Hillside Kennels up their cat adoption fee to $85 from $20 to partially cover the costs of the service with the City being refunded the additional $65 to go back into the program.
Gartshore says the City will continue to pick up sick or injured cats and will also do some trappings to help curb the problem.
"It's a program that I hope works but if it doesn't we'll try something else because when I saw what happens to feral cats, I was just appalled. Their life span is 2-3 years, that's horrible. A cat's life span is 18-20, so to me, it's cruelty not to do something about this."
Gartshore estimates it will take two years to recognize results with full results not seen for about five years.
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