CAT CONTROL PASSES SENATE BY WHISKER

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 5, 1993                   TAG: 9302050172
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG SCHNEIDER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short
CAT CONTROL PASSES SENATE BY WHISKER
What's next, a tax on hairballs?
The state Senate on Thursday said there should be no more free ride for felines, passing a bill that would let counties, cities or towns require cat owners to buy a license for each pet. Just like dogs.
Sponsored by Sen. Clarence Holland, D-Virginia Beach, the bill is aimed at kitty-population control. Cats have become so popular, Holland said, that in Virginia Beach they are overworking the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Of the 10,000 stray animals put to death each year by the resort city's SPCA, "the larger proportion are from the feline family," Holland said. "It's becoming expensive."
The SPCA requested the bill in hopes that license fees would go to offset costs, he said. The measure does not require licensing, just permits it.
The bill barely meowed through the Senate, 23-17. It goes on to an uncertain fate in the House of Delegates, where pro-feline forces were able recently to declaw a proposed cat-leash law.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1993

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB