Are Cats in the Cradle Simply Cash in the County Coffers?

My protest against a new county law requiring the licensing of cats has provoked anguished counterattacks.

The law was adopted recently by the county Board of Supervisors, 3 to 2. It imposes a $5 fee on neutered cats, a $10 fee on the un-neutered. It is expected to produce $200,000 a year in revenue.

In opposing the law, I pointed out that most cats are not owned, but are independent even of those who feed them. My wife, I noted, feeds five wild cats every morning. They have no names, she can’t pick them up and they can’t be shut in the house. I caught them in a rented cat trap one at a time and had them neutered at a cost of $150. Are they ours? Should we be required to pay $25 in fees on them?

I also cited Adlai Stevenson’s famous veto, as governor of Illinois, of a bill calling for the restraint of cats. “It is the nature of cats,” he said, among other things, “to do a certain amount of unescorted roaming.”

Most critics of my position argue that licensing and neutering would limit the proliferation of wild or feral cats that foul yards and are doomed to die of disease, hunger or street accidents or to be euthanized in pounds.

A state humane officer, Capt. Barbara Fabricant, not only applauds the law but says the fee should be $20 for un-neutered cats but only $2 for those that have been neutered. “For the many wonderful citizens who are feeding feral cats, it would not be practical to require licenses. However, they should be assisted by the county in getting such animals altered and getting them shots for rabies and other diseases; the county should pay for such services if the feeder of such animals catches such an animal.”

Capt. Fabricant’s proposal would not only get us off the hook for our five cats but would enable us, if the city were to adopt such a law, to recover the $150 we spent to have them neutered.

A formidable argument comes from Frank R. Andrews, director of the county Department of Animal Care and Control, which drafted the law and pushed it through the Board of Supervisors.

Like others, Andrews argues that cats should be licensed the same as dogs. “The new cat licensing ordinance,” he says, “is not about animal control officers chasing cats, or imposing a leash law on cats or even the amount of revenue that might be collected from cat licensing, all of which you implied.

“It is about returning stray cats, far too many of which wind up in animal shelters, to their owners. It is about identifying cats and their vaccination against rabies. . . . “

Andrews points out that in 1991 and 1992, more than 39,000 cats were euthanized in the six Los Angeles County shelters. “Virtually none of these animals were wearing any form of identification, which means our animal control officers had no way of determining to whom they belonged. Unless their owners came to our shelters and identified their pets--which happened in less than 1% of the time--the cats were placed for adoption or euthanized.”

He adds: “This is not some crack-brained scheme we dreamed up to crank a few extra bucks into our coffers. It is a measure that has been supported for years by respected pet welfare organizations . . . and veterinary associations. There are an estimated 55 million cats in the United States, and we think it’s worthwhile to help protect them. . . . It is not our intention under this law to chase stray cats down the street.”

OK. Say my wife and I pay our $50 in fees on our five neutered wild cats and then undertake to put tags around their necks. That means I have to rent a trap and catch them, one by one (that would take weeks, as it did for the neutering), and take them to the vet to have him put collars around their necks. There’s no way I could put collars around those cats’ necks without having my hands scratched bloody. They would have to be tranquilized. Also, the vet would have to vaccinate them for rabies and other diseases. That would probably cost another $150.

So one of them winds up in a shelter. How did he get there? Did he just wander in? Or did a member of the Department of Care and Control have to catch him? If the department caught more than 39,000 cats in 1991-92, they must have had to chase a lot of them down the street. I can’t believe that 39,000 citizens voluntarily brought cats in.

Tagging a docile cat that sleeps at the foot of your bed and uses a litter box is one thing. Tagging a wild cat is something else.

As Francis S. Buck of Pasadena wrote, “You may not know the difference between a cowbird and a bullfinch, but you sure do know cats.”