Council discusses community-cats resolution and animal-shelter capacity; no ordinance change adopted

Council members discussed the city's community-cats resolution and ongoing problems with feral-cat trapping, shelter intake and enforcement.

City representatives and council members noted the city's existing community-cats resolution is not a binding ordinance but follows a state-model approach, which generally calls for returning cats to the location where they were caught if the shelter lacks capacity. A speaker recorded in the meeting said the resolution requires release if the shelter cannot take an animal.

Council and staff described several operational problems: the county shelter declines felines in some cases; snowballing neighborhood complaints; and a local animal-control officer who repeatedly traps the same animals in a single neighborhood. Staff said county shelter capacity and court holds on animals can prevent transfers and reduce the shelter's ability to accept new animals; one staff member said the sheriff's office was holding five dogs for Price City that limited shelter space.

The council discussed possible licensing, trap-release-spay-neuter funding and whether the city should adopt an ordinance. No ordinance was introduced or voted on at the meeting.

Attribution and scope This article summarizes the council's recorded discussion of the existing community-cats resolution, shelter capacity and enforcement challenges. At the meeting a council speaker described the resolution as non-binding and said it complies with the state-model approach; that characterization was recorded in the transcript but no ordinance change was adopted at the session.