Santa Ana Sets the ‘Cat Man’s’ Limit at 3 Pets

Michael Fedoruk, “the Cat Man of Santa Ana” whose collection of 35 or so cats sparked an outcry among his North Townley Street neighbors, will have to reduce his pet collection to a maximum of three.

The Santa Ana City Council Monday approved a law limiting the number of cats per household to three. Any larger number will require a city permit to operate a kennel.

Council members approved the law on a 5-2 vote, with Patricia A. McGuigan and Robert W. Luxembourger dissenting.

McGuigan said she envisions that there will be problems in enforcing the law. But Councilman John Acosta disagreed, saying that Santa Ana has had no problem with its law limiting each home to two dogs. “I think it’s a self-policing thing,” he said, adding that Fedoruk’s neighbors gathered about 70 signatures calling for the law.

Councilman Wilson B. Hart said he believes that the law isn’t aimed at owners of several cats, but rather the “gross” violator such as Fedoruk.

Called a Hardship

Victoria Reinking, spokeswoman for Animal Pro-Life, a group that works to place stray and abandoned animals with new owners, urged the council to reject the ordinance, arguing that it would put an undue hardship on people who own more than three cats.

Reinking said she owns six cats. “I would no sooner part with one of them than you perhaps would part with one of your children, she said.”

Hart responded: “I do not equate her cats with my children.”

Fedoruk called the law “unfair” and said he wasn’t sure what his next move will be.

City Atty. Edward Cooper had drawn up several alternatives for the council, ranging from an outright ban on more than three cats, to a law that allows them under special permits.

Under the permit plan, people who now own more than three felines--such as breeders of purebred animals--will be able to retain their pets in sanitary conditions until the population is “reduced by death, sale or other disposition.”

Neighbors’ Complaints

The issue surfaced last month, when several North Townley Street neighbors complained to the council about the 35 to 50 cats being kept by Fedoruk. The smell, the droppings and the clawed furniture were more than they could take, a number of them told the council on June 17.

The battle was led by John Kish, Fedoruk’s neighbor. Kish collected 75 signatures on a petition calling for a city limit on the number of cats per home, while Fedoruk’s supporters argued that he was only taking care of stray and abandoned pets that would otherwise be killed at the county pound.

Little has changed since that meeting, Kish said Monday.

“He (Fedoruk) keeps them mostly locked up, but I know he lets them out real early in the morning,” Kish said, noting that Fedoruk has put up a new fence, ostensibly to keep the cats from freely roaming the neighborhood.

Kish has set traps for the cats, and Fedoruk has alleged that some of his pets have been intentionally injured. Fedoruk has also said that he has spent quite a bit of money--$25 each--to free cats from the pound.

“I trapped one just the other day,” Kish said. He said he takes each trapped feline to the pound, knowing that it will drive up Fedoruk’s costs a little more.