Schnitzelburg Area Council - LINC

I have lived in the Germantown area for about nine years.  The problem of stray cats or people that let their cats roam about the neighborhood has always been around. Is there anything that can be done about this? I have a dog who is always confined to my yard.  When a neighborhood cat wanders into the yard their life is definately in danger! My dog has killed 5 cats that have come into my yard--2 within the last couple of months. As an animal lover this causes me a great deal of distress!

 

People do seem to think that cats should roam free.  Letting them do that exposes them to many dangers, not just dogs are "citizens" of neighbor's yards.  If you actually know who is feeding and caring for the cat, you might try talking to the owner.  If the cats are feral, then you can contact Animal Control and "rent" a live trap to use to capture the cats.  In the past, a deposit was required, but once the trap is returned the deposit is returned also.  If a cat is captured in the live trap then Animal Control comes out and removes the cat.  Then they handle the cat in terms of contacting the owner if identification is present, or take it to the shelter and determine if it is "adoptable" or not.

 

Stray cats have been an issue on my street as well.  I live in the 900 block of Ash St.  I have two cats of my own and I do let my cats out when the weather is nice but they stay close to home (on the porch) when outside. They have collars with tags with name and phone #.  It's hard to tell whether the cats around here are really stray/feral  since nobody puts tags on their cats.  Stray cats are health concern to people and to other pets.    One issue that contributes to the cat problem is that there is a lot of rental property on my end of the street and when people move out, as they frequently do, they   they simply leave their cats behind.    One of my cats is adopted  from just such a situation. 

Just this evening, there was a news report on the local problem of feral cats and a volunteer group that is using live traps to capture the cats, spaying/neutering them and then returning them to their territory.  So, the problem is wide-spread in the city.

Again, the solution that I found that worked was to "borrow" a live trap from Animal control and when an animal is captured, Animal control will come out and remove the cat from the trap and then check for ID and contact the owner or decide if the cat is adoptable.  This is the most direct approach that I found that worked for me. 

Our new mayor, Greg Fischer, has scheduled "Talk to Greg" sessions, to be held every other month.  Or between meetings, citizens can always "Talk to Greg" by visiting his Facebook page or sending him an email at greg.fischer@louisvilleky.gov.   Or for more detail with working thru Animal Control, call MetroCall at 311.