Claws Come Out When Pomona Tries to Curb Cats

How many cats is too many?

The Pomona City Council couldn’t agree this week, so Councilwoman Nell Soto--who originally proposed a limit on what she said is an out-of-control cat population--is back to the drawing board.

Councilman C. L. (Clay) Bryant said that in trying to solve the cat problem, “we’ve strayed into an area we should stay out of.”

Soto said she suggested a cat limit because of complaints from residents who say their neighborhoods are full of felines. Soto originally proposed a three-cat-per-household limit, then raised the ceiling to five.

But Ted Krueger, who has seven cats, said owners should keep their cats indoors or have them neutered. Establishing a cat limit, he said, “is unfair to pet owners who are conscientious and take care of their animals, regardless of the number they have.”

Another pet owner, Betty Ann Jenkins, said the problem is not the number of cats in caring households but the number of strays.

Soto said the current stray program, in which residents borrow traps from the Pomona Valley Human Society, doesn’t work. She said she heard from one man who “ordered a trap, but had to take it back because he kept catching skunks and possums.”

William C. Harford, executive director of the society, which provides animal control for La Verne, Diamond Bar, Chino and Montclair as well as Pomona, said pet limits are enforced only after a complaint, making restrictions “almost a tool for one neighbor to get back at another neighbor.”

Harford said a limit on the number of pets a family can have is “not the answer to the problem” but is a start. He suggested that Pomona might follow Claremont, which limits the number of cats over 4 years old but provides a process for households with more cats to obtain kennel licenses.

The burgeoning cat population is a national problem, Harford said. In the year ending June 30, Harford said, 4,753 unwanted cats were picked up in Pomona, and 4,010 had to be destroyed. Although a decade ago, animal control officers mainly caught dogs, they are now almost as busy catching cats. Harford said his agency handled 13,300 dogs and 12,920 cats last year.

People need to be educated to confine cats or have them neutered, Harford said.

The council rejected Soto’s proposal 4 to 1. But Soto said she will look into another ordinance that would impose a limit but allow families with more cats to qualify for licenses to keep them.