Ocean City Today
8A NEWS
NOVEMBER 15, 2013
City grants give claws to cat management despite county objection Feline control groups get town allocations in spite of conflict with health dept. ZACK HOOPES Staff Writer (Nov. 15, 2013) City Council voted this week to approve three budget appropriations that have been in limbo since the start of the fiscal year, due to funding issues with the county.
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The town will be issuing grants of $1,500 and $2,500, respectively, to Delmarva Cat Connection and Town Cats. Both groups work to control the population of feral cats within Ocean City and Worcester County. However, the county had requested that the city make its grant funding of the groups conditional upon adherence to the county health department’s policies for cat management. Philosophical differences on the issue have reportedly been a bone of contention between the private advocacy groups and county officials. “The organizations were unable to obtain compliance because the county was not in favor of their cat management program,” City Manager David Recor told council. “Minus that end, we were unable to enter into an MOU [memorandum of understanding].” “But the organizations would still like to receive the small appropriations we had for them, so we’re asking for reconsideration,” Recor said. The issue is over the cat groups’ practice of the management strategy known as trap-neuter-return [TNR]. Under such a program, feral cats are trapped, spayed or neutered, given a rabies shot, and then returned to the locale where they were trapped. This establishes colonies of feral cats who do not spread disease or reproduce, and occupy a par-
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ticular ecological niche as predators that prevent more cats or other feral animals from moving in. However, given the county’s hard-line stance against rabies, it does not endorse TNR unless there is some record that the cats are being updated on their vaccinations. “My understanding is that they [the county] want constant follow-up shots on these cats. They would have to be retrapped yearly...in order for the county to approve the program,” said Councilman Joe Mitrecic. The alternative, if follow-up is not possible, would be to trap and kill the cats. But TNR advocates maintain that more cats will simply migrate in to replace them, and the only way to stop chasing one’s tail, so to speak, is to maintain a controlled population. “The county is very backwards in their thinking,” said Susan Coleman of Delmarva Cat Connection. “They get a call, and they immediately go out and euthanize the cat. Which makes no sense, because there will always be one to take its place.” Coleman noted that, even with the massive volume discount her group receives from veterinarians, it still costs $45 per cat to be spayed/neutered and vaccinated. “$1,500 from the city means 30 more cats we can control,” she said.
Council also approved on Tuesday of a $14,333 grant to the CRICKET Center, a non-profit group that assists local law enforcement and social services agencies with child abuse cases. The town’s grant to CRICKET was originally written into the budget as a matching grant to a county allocation. The county eliminated many of its new appropriations this year due to budget constraints, leaving the city to decide if it wanted to make an independent allocation. “I find it unconscionable on the part of the County Commissioners that they would not fund a child advocacy group,” said Councilman Doug Cymek. “I think the issue was that it was quite a large appropriation for a new charity,” said Councilman Brent Ashley. “But that being said, they do a wonderful job and certainly deserve our help.” Ashley had suggested previously that, if the council was to not go forward with the CRICKET grant, the money be put toward funding the municipal skate park, which was in danger of partial closure due to employee hour restrictions induced by insurance reform. City Manager David Recor confirmed that skate park funding had been secured for the remainder of the fiscal year. “We can easily allow for both. We didn’t find it necessary to have a quid pro quo on that,” Recor said.
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