THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 17, 1996 TAG: 9605170526
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NAGS HEAD LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
A woman who feeds a colony of about 30 feral cats has 30 days to find a home for them.
The Board of Commissioners ruled out options Wednesday night and set the deadline because of community concerns about the cats.
But animal rights activists say they will continue to fight to keep the cats free.
Pat Marshall has been feeding the animals in an area behind the Outer Banks Mall since the late 1980s. For the past year, business owners, animal rights activists, neighbors and the town have been trying to reach a compromise.
Police Chief Charles Cameron said he had considered a plan to provide collars for the animals to distinguish the 30 that Marshall feeds from the other cats in the area. But that, he said, was no longer an option. Estimates have ranged from 85 to over 120 feral cats in Nags Head. However, trapping by animal control officers has reduced the number to 50 to 75.
``I was going to propose a non-detachable collar,'' Cameron said. ``We were also going to propose that the cats be spayed or neutered. With that, within a period of five to seven years, the cats would be removed by attrition.''
However, three factors - a growing public health concern over the spread of rabies, a letter from Dr. Barry Welch, chairman of the Dare County Health Board, and an opinion from the state veterinarian - convinced Cameron that only two solutions exist: trapping and euthanizing the cats, or adoption.
``But feral cats can only be adopted in the first two weeks of life,'' Cameron said, summarizing the views of Welch and the state veterinarian. ``After that, they are assimilated into the wild.''
Gail Kowalski, president of the Outer Banks Chapter of the ASPCA, agreed. ``It's not a healthy situation for people of the town,'' she said. ``You're looking at an individual who does not own the property where the cats are located. There are liability issues'' for the mall and the village.
Kowalski said the acceptable fate for the cats that Marshall does not take care of is clear. ``The cats she does not care for need to be trapped and euthanized,'' she said. ``Every day at the animal shelter, we have to put to sleep domestic cats who would be good pets. The hopes for training and calming feral cats is non-existent.''
But Erika Seybert, director of the Outer Banks Spay Neuter Fund, says the town's action is a Band-Aid approach. ``I believe the cats behind the mall are a symptom of a larger problem in Nags Head,'' she said. ``Until the town passes a law that requires animals to be spayed or neutered, and provides the means for people to have it done, the problem won't go away.''
Marshall said she is upset about the commission's recommendation.
``My cats are paying for all problems caused by all the other cats in Nags Head,'' she said. ``All of my cats are spayed or neutered. They're not causing any trouble. I don't know where I'm going to move them. But if I do, they're just going to come back.''
Animal activist Karen LeBlanc said: ``Chief Cameron has gone out of his way to help us. But the information they received is biased against those animals.''
Marshall said the battle is not over. ``We're still going to fight this,'' Marshall said. ``These cats are not bothering anyone. We're not going to sit on this.'' by CNB