SEAL BEACH : Bolsa Chica Housing Foes Cite Cat Threat

In the war between the environmentalists and the developers over the proposed Bolsa Chica housing project, enter the humble house cat.

Seal Beach resident Gordon Labedz, a member of the Surfrider Foundation’s Environmental Issues Team, says the impact of domestic cats on endangered species will be devastating if the Koll Co. development goes forward as planned.

Labedz penned the Surfrider Foundation’s written response to the latest environmental impact report on proposed development in the Bolsa Chica wetlands. He is sharply critical of a section of the environmental review document that suggests environmental damage by pets could be mitigated by telling homeowners to keep pets indoors.

“One of the silliest things in the whole environmental impact report is that the impact of human pets will not threaten the ecosystem,” Labedz said. “Even cats that are domesticated love to kill birds.”

House cats pose a threat to the California least tern, Belding’s savannah sparrow and other birds on state and federal endangered species lists, Labedz said. And he warns that domestic cats breeding in the wilderness will create a population of feral cats even more dangerous to endangered birds.

“Our point is that humans and endangered species can’t live side by side like this,” Labedz said.

But house cats do live side by side with nature in residential areas of the Upper Newport Bay with few problems, according to Koll Co. Vice President Lucy Dunn. If necessary, Dunn says, restrictions could keep pets out of wildlife areas.

“We will do whatever is the right thing to do,” Dunn said, “even if it means some restrictions on cat ownership.”