Residents urge council to legalize trap-neuter-return; council liaison to request study

Dozens of Costa Mesa residents and volunteer rescuers told the City Council on March 4 that the city should legalize and implement a trap-neuter-return (TNR) program to reduce feral and community cat populations and shelter euthanasia.

At public comment, multiple speakers described years of volunteer TNR work, costs borne by residents and what they said are understated municipal intake figures. “The data represented on the agenda was not only misleading but felt deeply inaccurate,” said Megan (last name not provided), who said volunteers keep detailed records of trapping and treatment. Several speakers said Priceless Pets, the city’s contracted shelter, is overloaded and that community members are already performing TNR and arranging surgeries outside city records.

The push came during an extended public-comment period that lasted the early portion of the meeting. Animal-services committee vice chair Becca Walls told the council she drafted a model ordinance and presented it to the committee; committee members did not move it to council for consideration, she said. Walls asked council to “make TNR legal” so volunteers could operate openly and to accept the draft ordinance she submitted to the clerk.

Mayor Pro Tem Manuel Chavez, the council’s liaison to the Animal Services Committee, acknowledged the widespread community involvement and said he planned to place a study item on a near-term agenda. Chavez said the police department and city attorney had given staff an interpretation that the city’s sheltering contract may already allow Priceless Pets — as the city’s agent — to release sterilized cats back to their original locations. That interpretation altered the staff report Chavez had prepared and prompted a recalibration of the committee timeline, he said.

“I'm hearing that people want to bring this forward and council members want to bring it forward,” Chavez said. He said he would seek a council vote to allow staff to spend more than four hours on the issue if necessary and that staff would be empowered to work the matter but might need time to balance other police-department priorities.

Supporters described the public-health and animal-welfare benefits of a legal TNR program, and asked the council to let residents and volunteers return sterilized cats to their colonies rather than impound them. “TNR has been proven to be the most humane and cost-effective way to reduce stray and feral cat populations within a city,” said Erica (last name not provided), who said she served as a return-to-field coordinator for a regional rescue and helped manage the large Twentieth Street colony in 2023.

Speakers also pressed the council to recognize that volunteers frequently pay for surgeries and transport themselves and urged the city to adopt procedures that enable grant funding and coordinated volunteer efforts. Several speakers asked the council to remove or rewrite a municipal-code provision participants said has blocked community-led TNR efforts; one committee member cited an ordinance section she identified as “3.6” and another referenced a separate provision she called “354.”

Council members asked staff to collect additional information and to bring an item back to council for a decision if consensus exists at the committee level. Council Member Arlis Reynolds said the issue should be elevated to council if the Animal Services Committee and staff cannot reach a workable approach. Chavez recommended staff return with a recommendation on whether to place a four-hour study item on the council agenda. The mayor said he would seek the item at the next regular meeting if he can secure four votes.

Ending: Council did not adopt any ordinance or program at the March 4 meeting. Instead, several members indicated they want staff to analyze legal and operational issues — including the city’s contract with Priceless Pets and the municipal ordinance language identified by committee members — and then return to council with recommendations. Supporters present said they would press for legalization and an ordinance based on the draft Walls supplied to the clerk.