The Town of North Haven is working on a plan to address feral cats in the area of Vineyard Road.
On Friday, a social media post was shared by the North Haven Animal Control where they warned people to keep their domestic cats inside while the animal control unit conducted feral cat trappings to then euthanize them.
The post was met with dozens of complaints from residents about the plan to put the cats down.
In response to the now-deleted social media post, North Haven First Selectman Michael Freda said they are finishing up a plan to address the feral cats and that doesn't include euthanizing them.
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“First of all, the humane trapping of those feral cats in this particular neighborhood. We’ve engaged an expert, Lori Ratchelous is her name and it's the Friends of Feral Cheshire Cats.”
Freda emphasized euthanasia is not an option and said they turned to Friends of Feral Cheshire Cats because of their expertise in humanely trapping feral cat colonies and then coordinating the trap, neuter and release.
He said they will be working with the Mt. Carmel Animal Hospital to assist with the spay and neutering services.
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“They’re willing to work with Lori to ensure and facilitate the intake of these feral cats to perform a comprehensive medical examination of each cat, to also determine which of the cats in the colony are stray, or which are strictly feral," Freda said.
Lori Ratchelous, the co-founder of Friends of Feral Cheshire Cats, explained how the mass trappings will be conducted.
“The first thing will be to go to the street, speak with the residents. Some of the residents have already reached out to me, and find out where is the location, which house is feeding them, work with the person to try and allow them to set traps.”
She said if the homeowner refuses to work with them, they will then go to the neighbors to set traps on their property and try to trap as many as they can over a weekend period.
“We’ll get them set up at Mt. Carmel Animal Hospital. Our veterinarian will be providing the TNR services which include the vaccines, spay/neuter, treatment for fleas, ticks, internal parasites. The cat's ears will also be chipped which indicates that they have been spayed,” said Ratchelous.
In the best case scenario, she said it could take up to four days, but it depends on the size of the feral cat colony.
“If we’re dealing with a population of let’s say, 20, and we set 20 traps and we get 14 inside of the traps then we certainly will be returning at a later date to get them. It doesn’t mean that if we don’t get them in the first mass trapping that they’ll be left behind,” Ratchelous said.
Ratchelous emphasized the feral cats will not be rehomed.
“We will assess these cats the best we can to see if they are friendly. For the cats that are friendly we do have some local shelters that have stepped up and have agreed to take some of them in. But the cats that are unfriendly, that are feral, they will be going back outside.”
Kristie Lee Stewart at the Mt. Carmel Animal Hospital is the veterinarian who will be providing the spay and neutering, among other services.
She said she is glad the idea of euthanasia is no longer being considered.
“I think we all agree that euthanasia should not be part of the plan. Euthanasia should be saved for pets that are suffering or there’s no other alternative,” Stewart said.
Town officials and participating organizations will be meeting in the coming days to finalize the plan and set a date to begin trapping.
