Off topic, but I need some help regarding my rights.

AlabamaRelic said:
An estimated 60 million unowned cats roam the United States, along with another 60 to 88 million owned cats. A 2013 study determined that free-ranging cats account for 1.3 to 4 billion bird deaths and 6.3 to 22.3 billion mammal deaths every year. Since the year 1500, free-roaming cats have contributed to the extinction of 63 species worldwide, according to a separate 2016 study.
I hate house cats.
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Yeah, I posted those figures earlier (#35).

I don't hate the cats, but I haven't much/any use for the humies that introduced them (or any harmful invasive species) where they weren't indigenous.

Unfortunately, most proposed solutions (e.g. keeping pet cats "indoor-only", requiring pet cats be leashed same as dogs, TNR of feral cats...) begin & end in controversy.
 

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Birds spread disease and poop on everything. I'll take a cat any day.
 

FreeBirdTim said:
I know you guys are big on personal rights, so I thought you might be able to help on this one. It's a simple question, but I can't find the answer online. Can an animal control officer show up at my home when he's off duty? We're dealing with feral cat problem on my property and in the nearby woods, so I agreed to set up traps to catch them. We've caught around 20 so far in the daytime, but the issue is he wants them set up 24/7 and I told him no way. I'm not leaving a cat stuck in a trap for up to 20 hours waiting for this idiot to show up and take him away. He only works from 7 AM to 3 PM, so that's why they might be stuck in a trap for a long period of time.

Fast foward to last week, when he showed up at 9 PM in street clothes and in his own vehicle. He pounded on my door and scared the heck out of my elderly friend who lives with me. He was mad that the traps weren't set up. I again told him that I'm not leaving cats in traps for 20 hours. Does he have the right to pull this nonsense while off the clock? Doesn't seem legal to me. I don't want anyone on my property in the middle of the night anyway (for liability issues). What if he steps in a hole in my backyard and breaks his ankle? Any advice on this one would be appreciated.

P.S. Let me also add that all these cats are healthy and well fed, so he's not trying to protect them from abuse. Can't use that as an excuse.
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Is he really an Officer? I would contact the Agency he works for. He can't command you to do anything.
 

That's their title, but they're not LEOS. By the way, they served us with papers on the 7th, so we have until September 6th to catch them all and take them to the shelter. We are now down to three feral cats, but they don't go anywhere near the traps. I'm afraid I'm going to have to hire a lawyer to rip apart this statute. I cannot pay $75 per feral cat per month forever, just because they're not fixed and cannot be caught by myself or animal control. The statute needs to address this problem. Just a lame way to get revenue for the town's coffers.
 

FreeBirdTim said:
That's their title, but they're not LEOS. By the way, they served us with papers on the 7th, so we have until September 6th to catch them all and take them to the shelter. We are now down to three feral cats, but they don't go anywhere near the traps. I'm afraid I'm going to have to hire a lawyer to rip apart this statute. I cannot pay $75 per feral cat per month forever, just because they're not fixed and cannot be caught by myself or animal control. The statute needs to address this problem. Just a lame way to get revenue for the town's coffers.
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i'
m only suggesting.

Keep record of pour activities by documenting them. Pictures of traps in your yard Trapped cats ect. A cat being delivered. Evidence of good faith effort. Witnesses if they are willing to testify.

Feral cats are not owned cats.
Tim you could kick me in the shin and I couldn't accuse you of owning a feral. I could (and wouldn't in this case) accuse you of having released cats prior that became feral , but you and I both know I have no real evidence . Nor does anyone.

Domestic cats get in my garbage. I can identify them and my owners.
IF a feral cat arrived , visited or just showed up on a game camera that does not constitute my owning it. Even if it is my garbage awaiting the trip to the main road on garbage day.
Or a piece of bread I don't put out for the birds.

I'd be shocked if a judge said anything negative to you about your efforts . Let alone compliance with any ordinance.
I would backtrack any claimed law ,ordinance, rule the animal control official is claiming. And who enforces it when challenged.
Something seems amiss if you are being threatened with responsibility of removing feral cats.
Yes you live in an areas with strange attitudes about human/animal dynamics, But it can't be that weird! And I would expect a judge to toss my case out if it was claimed I hadn't in good faith reduced the population of cats that didn't belong to me.

Man my neighbors would be offended if I live trapped cats!
I've joked bout doing so and painting thier tails before releasing them. To prove they been here.
One neighbor said her cats stayed in her yard. I offered her game camera pictures as evidence that they didn't!

I'm not that offended at the nasty poopers pooping in my yard. Oh I'm offended. And I would rather they didn't.
But I have dogs (not running loose) . The neighbors aren't up in arms about that. And should one or more escape thier fences (and some have a very .long time ago by digging which I stopped) I fully expect my neighbors to treat them as I do thier cats.
 

If there's no food source animals will move on.
Simple solution is to invest in some Critter Ridder.

Being a facilitator for a long time has resulted in the situation that has now costs even more.

Family fed problem didn't happen because some person dumped 2 dozen cats in your life.

The bylaws state 3 cats, and playing dumb to that is a known fact.
Lawyer up? 🤣
Just get rid of the cats.
There's companies that do this also, certainly cheaper than an ambulance chasing lawyer.
 

releventchair said:
Feral cats are not owned cats.
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"Your Honor, I am not responsible for cats that do not, nor ever have, belonged to me."
ora.gif


The Defense rests.
 

Alert! I didn’t read all 5 pages of responses.

5 cats is EXCESSIVE.

Why you ask? Who am I to say that?!

Well cats rome the neighborhood, crapping in your neighbors garden/flower beds. They prey on the native wild birds that your neighbors enjoy so much. That one cat that didnt get fixed..well it fought with everyone else’s cat and bred one of someone else’s cat that didn’t get fixed. Now there are dozens, a hundred? Cats that are now being baited into your neighborhood giving a sense of moral satisfaction to those feeding them. The neighbors and the wildlife be damned (house cats are an invasive species by the way). Incredible hunters. A real threat to native birds.

I cheer the fact that someone is willing to remove the cats that you are trapping. It is likely prompted by immense pressure from the neighborhood.

Sounds like you are in the middle of a horrible mess that you may not have started, but are perpetuating by feeding a cat colony. Cats will not starve, rather they will follow the.food sources.

I myself have a rescued (fixed feral cat).
 

The bylaws state 3 cats, and playing dumb to that is a known fact.
Lawyer up? 🤣
Just get rid of the cats.
There's companies that do this also, certainly cheaper than an ambulance chasing lawyer.
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There are no companies in this state that would be allowed to come here and poison or shoot the cats. We have strict animal cruelty laws in this state. Any pest control person that attempted that would be arrested and out of business ASAP.
 

If there's no food source animals will move on.
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They have an unlimited food source here, whether we feed them or not. Our property is full of birds, frogs, mice, chipmunks and squirrels. When I cut back on their food, they just started killing everything that moved on our property. They're not going anywhere, even if I stopped feeding them.
 

The bylaws state 3 cats, and playing dumb to that is a known fact.
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We have two houses on the property, so we are allowed six cats (three per residence).
 

Only thing I would add, is if the guy is salaried, then technically he's 'on duty' all the time. Bet he's not though.
 

FreeBirdTim said:
There are no companies in this state that would be allowed to come here and poison or shoot the cats. We have strict animal cruelty laws in this state. Any pest control person that attempted that would be arrested and out of business ASAP.
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Got to just love how it's taken out of context.
Where in Sam hell did I imply poison or shoot the cats?

No bloody wonder you in the mess your in.
You for yrs have fed these cats.
Let them breed to the point of what it has become.

When your mother and then GF took up the feeding wasn't there any discussion?

No, you just took over the task fed them till they're fat and happy.
(To protect the birds)
Have been a pet owner all my life.
Even when the fat and happy cat is loved, fed.
Outside the prey drive kicks in, kill that feathered creature.

Seriously anything else is just fooling the reflection and throw the justifications at that reflection.

Bylaw 3 cats.
Which you complied with.

It was the feral cat mill you ran out back that you ignored.


So you start trapping, and try to resolve the issue.
Honorable in many ways.
The control officer overstepped the boundaries of what is permitted.

They have traps on the property and the then have a form of responsibility to resolve this issue.

Now you have a date to resolve it.

Where does the neighbors stand on the issue?
I'm probably thinking it's a about time this crap in my gardens went away.
2 dozen cats crapping everywhere I'm sure they have using the neighborhood gardens as a litter box.

When folks complain its not made public.
The complaint is read, investigated, if warranted it's then resolved.

There are lots of errors that could have been avoided.

Playing the victim doesn't work always in court.

The courts see it in a documented in black and white. The y will have everything documented and filed.
Just hope that you have done the same.
Sadly in this world one is often presumed guilty until they prove themselves innocent.
 

It was the feral cat mill you ran out back that you ignored.
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Wrong. We only had two feral female cats last year. When they had 7 kittens, I caught 5 of them with a net and took them to the shelter. So we ended up with 4 feral cats at the end of last year. We never had an issue until this Spring. That's when someone dumped a tomcat off in our area. He inpregnated all four of the feral cats and they had a total of 19 kittens. That's when I asked for help from animal control. Between the two of us, we caught 12 of the kittens in traps. I found six kittens up in my garage attic and grabbed all six (and the mother cat as well). So now we have one kitten left that's too smart to go into the traps.

Feel free too keep making snide comments and false accusations. I will reply to all of them until you get tired of being a jerk to me.
 

Well dang. Free bird you need to move to the land of the free where 'they' don't tell you how many you can have. How did you let them get control like that?
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The ACOs have state law behind them. Someone passed a lot of cat laws years ago that never should have been passed. Three cats per residence? Not a bad law, but who came up with that number? Every cat six months or older must be spayed or neutered, even if they're indoor cats? Not right. They also require every cat to be microchipped or have a collar on them for identification. That's okay, but cats sometimes get hung up in the woods with collars, so I stopped putting collars on my cats. Microchipping a cat costs around $70, so that's just another way for the vets to rake in the dough. No doubt the vets are behind a lot of these laws to give them more revenue.

The real problem is the fact that they're used to controlling little old ladies and harassing them to do what they want to do. They're not used to dealing with people who stand up to so-called "authority" figures. And they're definitely not used to someone yelling and swearing at them! It's our property, period. Allowing them to set up traps doesn't give them carte blanche over the property

As far as the fines, that's not way it was meant to be implemented. It was enacted to coerce people to get their tame cats spayed or neutered, not to punish people who have feral cats roaming their property who cannot be caught. As I stated to the ACO, why not use a dart gun or sedate them? They can't, because it's illegal. Why is illegal? The vets told the politicians it wasn't safe to do, so they banned those methods. How about a net? Not my fault that the ACO is too fat and out of shape to chase down a cat.

I have filed a complaint with the attorney general's office to nip this in the bud. The ACOs are abusing this law and harassing an 84 year old woman. Trying to fine someone for cats that cannot be caught is not the intent of this law.
We'll see how it goes this week...
 

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