Athens-Clarke County Ordinance Trap-Neuter-Release Amendment Passed!

Before the Athens-Clarke County Commission voted, the proposed TNR ordinance was amended to eliminate the $40 registration fee and the combo test (FIV/FLV) requirement, and to provide $10,000 for vouchers to pay local vets for spay/neuter, rabies, and eartipping of feral cats from registered colonies. Nine of ten commissioners voted to approve the ordinance, and seven of ten voted to include the $10K.

Thanks to ALL of you for your letters, phone calls, and three minute speeches at the commission meetings. I won't go into detail but if you were not there tonight or not watching on television, I encourage you to view the March 2nd, 2010 meeting online at http://athensclarkecounty.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2 or watch the "re-runs" on local access television over the next two weeks. The comments by Mayor Heidi Davison and commissioners Kathy Hoard, Kelly Girtz, Alice Kinman, Harry Sims, Andy Herod, and Mike Hamby were brilliant. One commissioner suggested tabling the issue for further discussion but another responded that we couldn't do that, kitten season is coming!!!

While this ordinance is about feral cat colony registration, if you care for one or a few ferals on your own property and they are spayed/neutered, vaccinated, etc. then you do not need to register but you can do so if you want to. You can call these cats you care for and keep vetted your pets or strays but NOT ferals so you would be their actual owner. Nothing will have changed from before; if the cats have caused a problem with neighbors or other citizens, this will not affect you at all. In this situation, a neighbor can still complain about your cats, and, just like before, you could possibly be fined for allowing your cats to be stray from your property or for them not wearing rabies tags. So, if this is something you are concerned about, we encourage you to register your cats as a feral colony.

Registered colony caregivers will not be considered the owners of feral cats nor will the person who owns the property where the colony is registered so all the ordinances about cats being required to wear a collar with a rabies tag, not straying, picking up waste, etc. will not apply. Registered colonies will have protection - it will be unlawful to interfere with a registered colony.

This is more targeted at the large colonies that may be located on business properties around town, to promote "best practices" that will prevent people from just feeding cats without also having them sterilized. The $10,000 to pay for TNR will only be available to cats from registered colonies. Colony registration will require permission from the property owner and a letter from a local animal rescue group saying you are working with them on colony management.

Everything will be reviewed annually and in three year increments to see how the feral cat management program is progressing.

There are still lots of details to work out regarding how to register, how the money will be doled out, and how to define success or lack thereof in the short time period of one and three year increments.

We had hoped for a much simpler ordinance that merely excluded feral cat caregivers from the ownership definitions but also required anyone feeding feral cats to TNR them but various city officials determined this was the only way to legalize TNR in Athens-Clarke County. Regardless, this is a huge step in the right direction by formally legalizing TNR and actually providing funds to carry it out! Still, this is only the beginning of another long journey, and we've have tons of work ahead of us!