Legal Claws : Ordinance Requiring Cat Registration Has Fur Flying in La Verne

Some residents of La Verne would like to claw a new pet law to shreds.

“It’s silly,” said Patti Taylor, a 20-year resident who has a 3-year-old cat named Betty Boops. “I don’t like it. I think it’s a way for the city to make money.”

What has hit a nerve with feline owners is an ordinance requiring all cats in the city to be licensed. The requirement, only the second on the books in California, was passed by the La Verne City Council Monday and takes effect July 1.

William Harford, executive director of the Pomona Valley Humane Society, said he urged the council to pass the law because the cat population in La Verne is booming, and restrictions are needed to control the number of strays. Last year, the agency picked up 856 cats.

“A lot of people think we’re going to bang on doors and force people to get licenses for cats,” Harford said. “We’re not the cat Gestapo. We just want owners to say, ‘I love this cat, it’s a part of my family, and I want to take responsibility for it.’ ”

The license fee would be $10 a year for an unaltered cat and $5 a year for cats that have been spayed or neutered. Dog owners already are required to license their pets.

Harford said that new license fees will go into a special fund for school educational programs and to pay for cat spaying and neutering.

The new law will also require residents to vaccinate cats over 4 months old and turn in a certificate to the humane society, which will then send the owners an identification tag for the cat.

According to Debbie Thornton, spokeswoman for the California League of Cities in Sacramento, Coronado in San Diego County is the only city with a mandatory cat licensing law.

Not everyone in La Verne is unhappy with the law. “I think it’s wonderful,” said resident Paige Patch, a dog owner. “Too many cats are running around. . . . If they make you do it for dogs, they should make you do it for cats.”