Moorpark Council Votes for Cat Licensing Law : Pets: City staff is directed to draft county’s first such ordinance, with hopes of reuniting more lost cats and their owners.

Moorpark is poised to become the first city in Ventura County to require that cats be licensed in the same way as dogs.

The City Council late Wednesday voted unanimously to direct city staff to draft an ordinance that could go into effect by October, officials said.

Councilman Scott Montgomery said that requiring cat registrations would reunite more lost cats with their owners and would reduce the number of felines that Ventura County Animal Regulation is forced to destroy each year.

The move was applauded Thursday by Kathy Jenks, director of the county’s Animal Regulation Department, who urged other cities to enact similar legislation.

“I think it’s absolutely necessary,” Jenks said. “We’re tired of killing cats.”

Jenks said that in fiscal year 1991-92, her department impounded 8,900 dogs and 9,481 cats. But because dogs are registered, she said, nearly 26% of the canines were reunited with their owners, while only 1.8% of the felines were.

That disparity contributed to the fact that county animal regulation officers were forced to destroy more than 81% of the cats it impounded, Jenks said.

“That sticks in our craw,” she said. “Every one of those cats had someone caring for it at one time or another. But it wandered off, we had no way of knowing who it belonged to, and we killed a lot of cats.”

And beyond the desire to match up missing cats and their owners, Montgomery said it is only fair that cat owners--through registration fees--start contributing to the fund the city uses to pay the county for its animal regulation service.

“They’ve really had a free ride,” he said of cat owners. “It’s only fair that they be treated the same, cats and dogs.”

Under the proposed ordinance, cat owners would pay the same amount for licenses as dog owners--$7.50 for cats that are spayed or neutered and $25 for those that are not.

Cat owners would have the option of hanging the license to a collar, affixing a tag to the animal’s ear or allowing a veterinarian to install a computer chip under the skin that animal control officers would be able to electronically scan for information.

Jenks estimated that it would cost up to $45 to have the computer chips implanted.

The council is also considering requiring all cat owners to vaccinate their pets for rabies, something that is required for dogs.

The lone critic of the proposed law was Councilman Pat Hunter, who objected to the cost of the computer chip installation and said he was not totally convinced that registration would lead to more lost cats being found by their owners.

“If I had a cat and I lost it,” Hunter said, “I would make an effort to find it and go to the shelter to see if they had it.”

But Hunter went along with the council’s desire to draft a formal ordinance, and said Thursday that he supports the concept of cat registration but just wants to make sure it is fair to cat owners and is effective.