Don't feed the animals: Proposed Wahpeton ordinance irks animal lovers

A group of area residents gathered at the Gull Point State Park Lodge on Thursday to call attention to a proposed Wahpeton ordinance that would ban the practice of feeding feral cats and other wild animals.
(Photo by Russ Mitchel//DCN Staff)

It's a decent spot for wild and stray animals to settle as well -- and lately it hasn't been a good mix.

The Wahpeton City Council is considering an ordinance to declare the "feeding or baiting of wild or stray animals" a nuisance. Specifically, a new subparagraph in Wahpeton Code would prohibit "the making available of food, salt, mineral blocks or other products for ingestion by wild or stray animals."

Elevated bird and squirrel feeders are OK. Standing crops left over the winter as a food plot for wildlife are acceptable, too.

But, what Susie Jones of Wahpeton does out of her garage for a pair of feral cats would be illegal under a proposed ordinance change.

"It started with some concern on the part of some neighbors with a neighbor of theirs that was feeding the cats out in her garage," said Wahpeton Mayor Frank Joenks. "As a result, some other wildlife was coming in there -- specifically some skunks. Some raccoons were also helping themselves to the food. They were crawling under decks at night and kind of being a nuisance in that way. It has kind of escalated from there."

The phrase "escalated" could apply to the region's feral cat population, too. Some gather outside convenience stores and near restaurant dumpsters in other parts of the Iowa Great Lakes. It's a worldwide issue: Cat colonies in Jerusalem and at the Colosseum in Rome are internationally-known.

People who are sympathetic to the effort made by Jones think the city may be pointing its regulatory authority in the wrong direction.

Jen Johnson is a former director of the Humane Society in Kansas City who has moved to Estherville. She joined Jones, and local residents Lori Thomas and June Goldman on Thursday for an informal press gathering about Wahpeton's proposed ordinance.

"It's a bigger problem than just Susie feeding two cats," Johnson said. "The underlying issue is spay - neuter and people taking responsibility for their companion animals."

Jones previously trapped the two casts she feeds out of her Wahpeton garage. The cats were taken to a veterinarian and fixed, or altered so they could no longer reproduce. That's the right approach, Johnson says, because feeding members of an unaltered feral cat colony does no good. The cats would continue to reproduce and trespassing strays would continue to be a problem for local residents.

Cats are also territorial and if the Jones feral cats are chased away another -- unfixed -- group would move into the area.

"It's not about the neighbors," Jones said. "It's about helping these cats and helping the wild out. There's animals all over the place. If there's two feral cats or if there's 20, feral cats are very protective of their area. If they weren't there, more would move in."

Municipalities need to be setting money to deal with the issue instead of ignoring it, Thomas said. Goldman said Wahpeton residents "should be grateful that they haven't seen a rat on their premises in many years because the cats have kept that population down."

The group would like to see cities more supportive of efforts to trap and alter feral cats. At the very least, they'd like to see an ordinance that requires pets to be registered and altered before the animals would be allowed in city limits.

"I'm not against that idea," Joenks said. "To be honest with you, that's the right thing to do. I think the problem is, if they're allowed to continue to run unattended (under current laws), they are infringing the rights of the other neighbors who are not necessarily in favor of them being in their yards, their decks or their back porches. I commend the people who trap them and have them spayed or neutered, but I'm concerned about the fact that the cats can continue to run around wild without anybody watching them to make sure they don't infringe upon their neighbor's property or the neighbor's rights."

The ordinance survived a first-reading on Feb. 8. The second reading is set for March 8. April passage would ban what Jones does for the cats who visit.