Animal Control: Biggest problem is feral cats

October 21, 2009

Valencia County Animal Control is saying its biggest problem in the county is containing the cat population, from people feeding feral cats to cats that roam around neighborhoods and into people’s yards.

“Feral cats are a very large problem in our county,” said Susan Randall with the county’s animal control office.

The animal control office picks up cats just like they do dogs when the cats are a problem.

“I’m plagued by cats, some of which might be feral,” said Joe Rizzo, who lives in Rio Communities. “I used to have automatic bird baths. I’ve had to stop that because the cats come into the yard and are killing the birds.”

Randall said the animal control office will respond to calls to pick up cats, but also said the county has traps it provides to residents who want to do the trapping themselves and deliver trapped cats to the animal control office.

“Our waiting list for getting those traps is so long because there’s such a problem,” she said. Trap are available for sale at pet stores, she said, and the trapped cats can be delivered to animal control.

“These wild cats or domestic cats that belong to people think they should use my flower box under my living room windows as their personal sandbox,” said Tom Walton of Rio Communities. “I have trapped many of them. I own my own trap.”

He said he’d like to see cats on leashes and penned in.

“People think you can’t do it,” he said. “Oh yes you can. You just have to do it.”

Randall said everyone should take a look at the county’s animal control ordinances on the Valencia County website, because many people don’t understand what’s illegal.

“Unfortunately a lot of people are not aware of the ordinances we have,” she said. “Where we have a lot of problems in neighborhoods is with people who think they can just let their dogs run around the streets and the neighborhood, back on the property, back off of it.”

Schoolchildren, she said, have been bitten by dogs while they’re waiting for their school bus or walking to school.

She said ordinances limit the number of animals people can have on their property. There are guidelines in the law for how people should care for their pets and livestock, including required rabies shots. There’s also a barking and nuisance ordinance.

“You do have those dogs, just day and night, day and night — they drive you nuts,” Randall said, noting animal control officials, when called, will head out to chat with the dog’s owner.

People need to be aware of what’s actually a violation of the law and then call in a report about about it. She said the animal control office can only be as good as the quality and number of calls it receives.

While she said neighbors have traditionally just spoken to their neighbors about pet problems as a way of dealing with it, she wants people to call animal control to deal with violations.

“We have a new facility. It was expanded,” she said. “We have the staff.”

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