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Talk of killing feral cats prompts Granite Shoals emergency meeting

The Granite Shoals City Council has called an emergency meeting for Dec. 19 to address the fallout from a Wildlife Advisory Committee discussion of lethal feral cat management. The agenda includes an executive session concerning City Manager Peggy Smith, who was at the committee meeting.

The emergency meeting, which is open to the public, is at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Granite Shoals City Hall, 2221 N. Phillips Ranch Road.

The Wildlife Advisory Committee aids the city in making wildlife management decisions. It was originally put together to control the white-tailed deer population within the city limits, but its responsibilities expanded after Smith asked members to tackle Granite Shoals’ feral cat problem. Committee members are appointed by the City Council.

The Tuesday council meeting will center on an audio recording (see end of story) of the committee’s Nov. 6 meeting that included an in-depth discussion between Smith and committee members on how to mass trap and kill feral cats, which upset many residents and animal welfare experts.

The Hill Country Humane Society publicly severed ties with the city, and the Granite Shoals Police Department issued a statement explaining that much of what was discussed in the meeting was illegal and would never be condoned by law enforcement. 

Dr. Dan McBride of Burnet Veterinary Clinic wrote a letter to Granite Shoals Mayor Ron Munos protesting what he said was “blatantly illegal and unethical behavior that cannot be ignored.” McBride is president of the Hill Country Humane Society Board of Directors.

“This recording reveals that not only was there an attempt to develop a plan to inhumanely shoot captured cats and dispose of their carcasses, but there was also an open discussion between members of the committee and the City Manager about the need to conceal such activities from the general public,” McBride wrote in the Dec. 14 letter. 

Police Chief John Ortis sent out a media statement on Dec. 16 in the aftermath of the recording’s release to explain his department’s stance on the issue.

“The Granite Shoals Police Department enforces state law and the ordinances of our City, which do not allow any cruelty to animals, including feral cats in our community,” he wrote. “This policy has not changed.”

According to Texas law, Section 42.092, trapping and shooting feral cats would constitute animal cruelty and either be filed as a Class A misdemeanor or a state jail felony

It also would be illegal to discharge a firearm within Granite Shoals city limits without permission from the police department.

Ortis told DailyTrib.com that the GSPD has not approved trapping or discharging firearms in the act of feral cat removal. He also said he wanted to assure the public that his officers are not involved in trapping or killing feral cats unless the animal is already suffering from a mortal injury.

“You do have people that don’t want (feral cats) on their property, but there is a proper way to do this,” Ortis said. “The discussions that (the Wildlife Advisory Committee) had were way off base.”

Ortis also lamented the tarnished relationship between the city and the Hill Country Humane Society. Granite Shoals typically has a contractual partnership with the nonprofit organization to take in 100 animals a year for $25,000 to $30,000, but according to Ortis and the HCHS, this deal was not inked for the present fiscal year. Without an agreement in place, it could become even costlier for the city to deal with its stray animals.

“We’re trying to find an organization where we can (bring our stray animals),” Ortis said. “Because of these comments (from the committee), this has now added time costs, fuel costs, and labor costs.”

The recording of the Wildlife Advisory Committee meeting is one hour and 23 minutes long. The vast majority of that time is spent discussing methods for trapping and killing feral cats in the city. At a City Council meeting on Dec. 12, however, the committee suggested a current city ordinance be adjusted to make it illegal to feed and harbor feral cats. No suggestion was made to kill feral cats. 

The proposed ordinance merely added the words “or designee” to the following sentence in the current ordinance: “The animal control officer or designee may immediately seize and remove all animals or certain animals from any colony.”

Adding designee would make it possible for a resident to be “deputized” by the police department to carry out removals.

The word “remove” was not defined in the suggested ordinance change but was used interchangeably with the word “euthanize” throughout the recorded committee discussion. 

Wildlife Advisory Committee Chair Todd Holland was asked to comment on the public outrage over the Nov. 6 discussion.

“I think that this committee is discussing the entire issue of feral cats and all of the potential recommendations, and at the end of the day, it’s up to the City Council and the chief of police to make a final decision,” he said. “It’s not like we’re a bunch of cowboys running wild. We were discussing the intricate details of how this would work. If you listen to the meeting, you will hear that we consistently went back to that we had to get the approval of the City Council and the chief of police.”

The Granite Shoals council took no action on the Wildlife Advisory Committee’s proposed feral cat feeding ban during its Dec. 12 meeting.

Mayor Munos told DailyTrib.com that he found the content of the Nov. 6 committee meeting “disturbing.”

“The city is not doing this,” he said. “We’re not going out and killing cats. What we hope to do is get all of the interested parties together and come up with a solution that is both legal and humane.”

DailyTrib.com reached out to City Manager Smith for comment, but she did not reply by the time of this article’s publication.

RECORDING OF THE WILDLIFE ADVISORY COMMITTEE’S NOV. 6 MEETING 

DailyTrib.com has included a recording of the meeting with correlating time stamps that highlight the nature of the discussion.

  • 16:15-16:36 — City Manager Smith discusses where to put the bodies of dispatched cats.
  • 17:45-19:16 — Committee members discuss how many cats they believe are in the city, estimating 400.
  • 21:17-22:40 — Committee members discuss the potential for mass trapping and killing. “I mean, this is going to sound bad, but could you somehow round them up in a mass cage or something like that?” asked Committee member Brad Hammel during the meeting. “Is there any sort of mass euthanasia program that we can do? How can we take out 50 cats at once?”
  • 26:00-26:36 — The committee and City Manager Smith discuss how to organize the trapping and keep it under wraps. “The more the public knows, the more they’re involved, the uglier it gets,” said Committee member Billy Kelly during the meeting.

dakota@thepicayune.com

8 thoughts on “Talk of killing feral cats prompts Granite Shoals emergency meeting

  1. Feral cats should be treated like feral hogs and zebra mussels. Hunted, trapped, killed and eradicated. Animal welfare “experts” care only about cute, cuddly animals like feral cats, not the hundreds of native animals whose populations are decimated by these feral monsters. It’s our ecosystem, we must defend it.

    If spaying and neutering make you “feel” better, then think about the little birds in their nest crying for food from their mommy when the mean old neutered/spayed cat comes and eats them. Good news is, you won’t need to fill your bird feeders anymore.

  2. This has crossed all lines of humanity. Everyone sitting in that room should be fired and run out of town.

  3. Address the problem which is people not neutering their animals and letting
    them breed and multiply. Humanely trap neuter and release the current population.
    I can’t believe someone brought up shooting them much less poisoning them
    which will harm the entire food chain and water system. Use your brains and
    have some empathy

  4. What disturbs me more than ANYTHING, is the fact that the City Manager, “wanted to keep it under wraps”. How ignorant can she be, thinking this would not be made public? She needs to go back to “Open Meetings Act” training, and be made aware NOTHING in local government is kept “under wraps”. Shame on her. And then to not make a comment only makes her look guiltier that she would encourage “keeping it under wraps”. Tsk Tsk Tsk

  5. If people that have cats would get them fixed ,there would not be a feral cat problem!!! Pet owners need to take responsibility or stop complaining… in my neighbor hood one lady told me that she had 20 some odd cats on her property and said she “NEEDS” to have some fixed but probably won’t be able to…They don’t bother us We LOVE cats!!

  6. They got caught! They are embarrassed by their own words & lethal attempts to kill & not TNR cats! The problem is folks NOT FIXING THEIR PETS! How many of these same folks go Dove Hunting?!! They are Not Worried about BIRDS!!! This is disgusting & their words will haunt them!!
    Show Up For The Cats!! I will proudly bring my cat loving spirit to face these monsters! We will show you what a group of Crazy Cat Women & Men can Do on Behalf of Cats in Need! Shame on YOU!! & Look out for the Good Caring Folks that Do What’s Right for the Animals! I see some resignations coming real soon!

  7. Good Lord! You can’t just euthanize cats because your Community keeps feeding them! Capture , do a thing with Hsc. And start fining, seriously fining people who have them and not taking care of them! Good God!

  8. Well starving them is more inhumane! Come on, use this committee to put some thought into this issue and come up with a better solution now.

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