34 South Main St., Attleboro, MA - (508) 222-7000
News
Those darn cats
Top Headlines Councilor Brian Kirby proposed an ordinance this week that would force cat owners to keep the animals, which are natural roamers and hunters, corralled on their own property or risk fines that escalate to $100 every time a cat trespasses or is found out of its owner's yard. While at least one colleague has panned the proposal as "ridiculous," Kirby said his effort is an appropriate response to complaints registered by two residents. He said the proposal is "exploratory" and "may not go anywhere," but needs to be raised. "It's purely in response to a couple of constituent concerns, and I believe they deserve that much," Kirby said. One resident contacted him about a neighbor's cat that jumped over a fence and killed a pet bird in front of him.  A cat on the prowl in Attleboro could get his owner in trouble under a proposed ordinance. (Staff photo by MARK STOCKWELL)
Another resident complained about a rogue roamer that scratched the hood of his car and left his yard "smelling like a litter box.""I'm not suggesting that we keep cats indoors, but I want to see if we have any recourse if they are harming other pets or using yards as litter boxes," Kirby said. "We at least need to explore the issue," Kirby said. "We may not find anything, and it may not go anywhere." Kirby, who is not a cat owner, acknowledged a cat control ordinance could be hard to enforce. The actual wording of the proposal says "no owner or keeper of a cat shall cause or permit such cat, whether licensed or unlicensed, to run at large or be a public nuisance within the city of Attleboro." While seven of his colleagues voted to put the matter into the ordinance committee which is headed by Kirby, Councilor Bill Bowles, a member of the committee, said the proposal is absurd. "In all my 12 years on the city council, it is one of the most ridiculous proposals I've ever seen," he said. "To try to contain a cat like a dog is ridiculous." Bowles, who has owned outdoor cats in the past, said the ordinance would essentially force people to keep their cats indoors because it's almost impossible to keep a cat in the yard "unless you build a box over it." "What it would basically do is outlaw outdoor cats," he said. "Even super-progressive communities haven't sunk that low." Bowles said the effort is a waste of time, and the council should focus its attention on issues like downtown revitalization and climbing water and sewer rates. "I can't picture the council seriously entertaining an ordinance to restrict cats, but stranger things have happened," Bowles said. GEORGE W. RHODES can be reached at 508-236-0432 or at grhodes@thesunchronicle.com.
Post Your Comments 444444 wrote on Sep 9, 2007 10:22 PM: " Jennifer Arsenault - Attleboro
My response to this absolutely crazy suggestion, to fine cat owners if their cats leave their lawns -was printed - in part- in the paper today (Sunday). A few facts were edited out:
1. my cat is 13 years old
2. Wetlands are my backyard. There are a thousand animals that come across my property. I chose to live here as did all of my neighbors.
3. I said, in my unedited version,"...when you choose to live in a neighborhood with children, dogs and cats, ones hope to live in a bubble is erased".
4. In the final paragraph, #3 I suggested that the counsel investigate the amount to complaints from the address, but the editing removed my suggestion they they also needed to look in to the amazingly wide variety of complaints from that address.
Basically - by making this an issue, our counselors are giving merit to an annoying, disliked member of our community in the hopes of shutting him up. If there are public records on complaints - I wish someone would review the amount and subjects that our community have received from this complainer. I have three dogs,as well. It is beyond funny to hear someone out there is attempting to parallel dog restraints with cats. Goes to show... all voices aren't necessarily ment to be heard. " ld1973 wrote on Sep 7, 2007 4:09 PM: " Did you ever think that no one owns the cats? It seems like you are the type of person who needs someone to blame. The cats are just doing what they do naturally. " tinovr wrote on Sep 7, 2007 3:49 PM: " Kevin, I am unsure of who owns the cats. I don't beleive an ordinance is required, just some sensitivity on people regarding the care and behavior of their pets and their fellow neighbors property. I think we all would like the same respect provided to each other. Unfortunately, society today lacks that mutual respect, obviously. " Bill Bowles wrote on Sep 7, 2007 3:36 PM: " As one of only two City Councilors who voted against bringing this ridiculous proposal before the City Council, I am encouraged by the response from the bloggers. Residents have an expectation that their City officials will spend their time on proposals that will benefit our residents. Today, we are the butt of jokes on Boston talk radio, and Attleboro is once again being painted in a negetive light. As City Officials, I feel we have an obligation to act responsibly, which certainly did not happen here. " ld1973 wrote on Sep 7, 2007 3:05 PM: " Seems to me you have a beef with your neighbors cats. Be a man and go take it up with them, stop complaining on here. " kevin wrote on Sep 7, 2007 3:00 PM: " Vincent, Have you ever spoke to your neighbors about this problem you have? p.s. dogs are not cats. " ld1973 wrote on Sep 7, 2007 3:00 PM: " Your missing my point, sometimes it can't be helped. Apparently you have careless neighbors. Go live in a bubble if you don't like it " tinovr wrote on Sep 7, 2007 2:57 PM: " "But you need to learn that nature is nature and if a dog pees on flowers that are planted near the side of the road then so what...don't plant flowers there. " ---- See ...that's the problem.. You think it's the fault of the guy who planted the flowers... It's NOT.. it's his property.. he's shouldn't have to be concerned about somebody else's dog's piss. It is not "nature"... It's responsibility. Let your dog piss on the pavement, or in the woods, not on someone else's property. " ld1973 wrote on Sep 7, 2007 2:54 PM: " Not to mention, Vincent, you live in a wooded area with water where there are probably many wild animals around. Get over it, it's nature and the way it goes. You shouldn't put your first and last name, people can find out your address easily. " ld1973 wrote on Sep 7, 2007 2:51 PM: " I wouldn't be upset if your dog crapped on my lawn as long as you clean it up and as long as you're not bringing your dog into my yard to do so. I don't allow my dog to wander into other people's yards or walk on other people's grass but from time to time she may and if she does I clean it up. Looks like you may not live in a nice neighborhood where you have responsible pet owners. You must be a yard nazi. I feel bad for your family. Do you let your kids play on the grass? " ld1973 wrote on Sep 7, 2007 2:49 PM: " Vincent, hey, I call it as I see it....I wasn't name calling. Nature is nature, and no animal is ever domesticated. Apparently you need to learn that. It's kind of hard to move your dog while they are peeing, and not to mention it's not healthy to either. I'm sure squirrels and birds and all other animals pee and poo on the flowers too. Maybe we should put cameras out and catch them in the act! If the flowers are near the side walk or side of the road where they walk there is not much you can do but if the person is allowing the dog to go into the yard then that is not right. I don't agree with those who don't clean up poo after their dog. That is definitely inconsiderate. But you need to learn that nature is nature and if a dog pees on flowers that are planted near the side of the road then so what...don't plant flowers there. " tinovr wrote on Sep 7, 2007 2:33 PM: " Laney Please don't take this discussion down to a personal attack level... I'm trying to have an factual debate here.. Let's not stoop to name calling... I'd just like to see people take responsibility for their pets. Just the other day I saw a woman walking her dog let her dog piss on someone elses flowers. Now this homeowner spent money and time buying the flowers and planting them. Should this lady let her dog piss on the flowers? Of course not.. but she did, and it appeared that she had no intention of trying to tug the dog along to make it piss elsewhere. Not a responsible pet owner if you ask me. I'd be quite upset if I was that homeowner. If you're letting your DOMESTICATED animal do something detrimental to someone elses property, then it's WRONG. The same way you'd be upset if I let my dog crap on your lawn, I don't want your cat marking his territory on my stoop. It's really not that hard a concept to understand. " heather wrote on Sep 7, 2007 2:14 PM: " if you're going to go thru the trouble of putting the trap out, catching this cat and use the gas to drive it to the pound, wouldn't it be eaiser to use some of that spray to keep them away? just a thought here.
if all of us could live in a bubble and not have to deal w/ others, life would be fabulous. we don't live in Maine where your closest neighbor is 10 miles down the road. we have to coexist and work w/ our neighbors. and with that comes dealing w/ their pets. its not that difficult to walk next door and have a friendly chat. again, there are bigger things to worry about. " ld1973 wrote on Sep 7, 2007 2:11 PM: " Vincent, quit your b*tching and complaining. Put a net around your house and yard then to keep out the birds and squirrells and other animals that I'm sure roam through your yard and poo and pee everywhere. Unbelievable. " heather wrote on Sep 7, 2007 2:05 PM: " Exactly Kevin.
simply put in a nutshell - take responsibility and use common sense. both of which i think society has forgotten about. " tinovr wrote on Sep 7, 2007 2:02 PM: " I am responsible for my pets. My cats are housecats, and my dog IS trained properly. The howling and growling they make is not audible outside my house. I'm not talking about wild animals. Just pets. Maybe the proper way to control OTHER peoples pets is to call animal control. Or maybe I put out a Have-A-Hart trap and when the cat is caught, take it to the pound myself. Let the owner deal with getting it back. It's about being responsible for your animals. If you can't control your animals, then you shouldn't own pets. It's this lack of accountablity that's the problem. It's your pet. It's on my property. Keep it on your own property. But people don't see it that way. It's MY fault, and MY responsibilty, and MY cost to keep SOMEONE ELSE'S pet contained properly. " heather wrote on Sep 7, 2007 2:02 PM: " Exactly, Kevin.
Simply put in a nutshell - take responsibility and use common sense. both of which i think society has forgotten about. " kevin wrote on Sep 7, 2007 1:54 PM: " Please everyone, introduce yourself to your neighbors, make friends. If there is a problem, speak to your nieghbor, we are all adults here. If everyone could just make their close neighbors happy, then we will all prosper. The police and government have bigger fish to fry. " liss wrote on Sep 7, 2007 1:48 PM: " Vincent, the cats are not purposely agitating your animals. That is how nature works. Your animals make noise, you tell them to shut up. What do you want to do next? Ban deer, squirrels, and other such animals (including humans) that may cause you dog to bark? It's not just cats that cause it. " heather wrote on Sep 7, 2007 1:35 PM: " per your words "then it's the pet owners responsibility that their pets do not cause a nuisance" - then aren't your animals causing a nuisance to your neighbors by barking and howling? can we request a new law that bans dogs and cats from howling and barking??
we could go around and around with this.
this whole situation boils down to alot of common sense (cover up your son's sandbox w/ a cover, i'm sure wild animals would use it as a litter box as well. do we have to round them up now?) if these cats are "marking their territory" on your front step - here's an idea - TAKE SOME ACTION YOURSELF! they make harmless products that they probably sell at the pet store or online you can put in your yard to deter these kinds of problems.
i think we have more important things going on in our community (shootings, stabbings, teenage pregnancy, high school dropouts, child welfare problems etc) that could instead be addressed with all this energy.
in the grand scheme of life, a roaming cat is the least of our worries. " sbieksha wrote on Sep 7, 2007 1:20 PM: " To think we can control "outdoor" cats is never going to happen. To think every cat owner in the city will keep their cat as an "indoor" isn't going to happen either. I too have a dog that gets agitated by a neighbor's cat that walks by the door, but I tell my dog to hush up. She also gets upset when the occasional deer, coyote, fox, raccoon or turkey walks through the yard and again when someone walks past the house walking their dog on a leash. You can purchase a spray that keeps cats from urinating close to your house, might be an initial minor expense, but it works. Now think of the big picture and what outdoor cats do; they keep the mice, rat, snake, chipmunk and squiril populaltion down. This is how nature works. If this were to pass, in 2 years everyone would be drying about how many rats there are running around and what we can do about controlling that. " ld1973 wrote on Sep 7, 2007 1:11 PM: " Sounds like you need to teach your animals not to howl or bark at the cats. " tinovr wrote on Sep 7, 2007 1:00 PM: " At first I thought this was an idiotic idea. Until my wife told me that there's 3 or 4 cats in the neighborhood that roam free. We have 2 indoor cats and a dog, all of which become agitated when cats walk past our front or back doors. The roaming cats cause our cats to howl and the dog to bark. I am also aware that the roaming cats will defecate in our sons sandbox, as well as urinate near our front door to mark "their territory". If a cat is owned by someone, then it's the pet owners responsibility that their pets do not cause a nuisance. By letting their cats relieve themselves on my property, as well as agitate my pets, they are indeed causing me a nuisance. As for enforcing something like this, I think we all know how impractical it would be. I think that pet-owners in general should ensure that their pets do not bark, defacate, urinate, or otherwise annoy their neighbors. It's part of being a responsible pet owner. " Heather wrote on Sep 7, 2007 11:30 AM: " ARE YOU EVEN SERIOUS??????????
this is all people can come up with to address and make laws against when a young man just got stabbed to death about a block from the police station??
this is all people can come up when a house on Park Street has had numerous complaints and one was about a girl almost slicing another girl's throat with a broken bottle??
so will our tax-paid officers then be chasing roaming cats over a river and thru the woods to find their owners when all this violence is going on in our city??
lately attleboro has made alot of changes for the better and i've been proud to say i live there.
i'm beginning to wonder if i should reconsider this conclusion of mine.
if this is what my tax dollars are going towards to pay for town officials to have meetings, laws to be drawn up like this, it really makes me wonder if they see the whole picture of what is going on in our neighborhoods.
here's an idea - keep your ignorance in a cage and have tax dollars spent more wisely like for our schools, after school programs, more officers etc. " ld1973 wrote on Sep 7, 2007 11:23 AM: " Ha! Good luck with this on Kirby! You've got to be kidding me. It would take a lot of cat poo and pee for a persons yard to smell like a litter box. I think that person is exaggerating regarding that. Oh and for scratching hoods of cars, that's hard to do as well. These people are over exaggerating. " Neil_Goodchild wrote on Sep 7, 2007 10:35 AM: " A pet bird that was not in a cage? I think that explains more than we need to know about the bird's owner. Unless, of course, the cat can pick locks. If that is the case, we have got to get our hands on that cat - it could prove useful in the War on Terror.
As far as cats scratching the hoods of cars, I would think that would be an issue for the car owner to take up with the cat owner. Or maybe an insurance company.
To propose a law to make it illegal for cats to go outside demonstrates a staggering level of ignorance. And it leads me to some interesting questions, like, for example, who will be going around grabbing the cats and bringing them to Kitty Cat Jail? Who will pay for these people to do it? And how do they expect to be able to do this in the first place? For those who are unfamiliar with cats, I will enlighten you because I have three. You pretty much can't catch one if it doesn't want to be caught and mine are relatively old and lazy. Every time I close my eyes, I can picture an untrained, underpaid person wielding a tranquilizer gun in back yards all over Attleboro. We should all agree to disregard the proposal and we'll never speak of this again in daylight. " kevin wrote on Sep 7, 2007 9:10 AM: " Alisse, How about the Harleys that roar around in the very early AM. I get awakened at least twice a week by these noisy types. They say the noise keeps them safe because folks can hear them, I say put on mufflers and add ice cream truck music for safety. :-) " liss wrote on Sep 7, 2007 8:22 AM: " Kevin, I have to agree with you. Cats are naturally free animals and it's pretty impossible to make them stay in one place unless they are indoor-only cats. Cats pose little threat to the quality of life when they wander through your yard. Brian Kirby has made an insane proposal and I can only hope that it doesn't pass. I don't think he realizes that you can't control animals like that. If he wants to improve neighborhoods, perhaps he should outlaw loud music or revving engines- NOT cats. " Kevin wrote on Sep 7, 2007 8:16 AM: " oops. " Kevin wrote on Sep 7, 2007 8:15 AM: " " This is absurd. What, don't you folks have enough work to do, like.... controlling SPENDING!!! Brian Kirby... I'll remember to NOT vote for that name if I see it on a ballot. And I vote EVERY election. I can't tolerate stupidity. This is a case of the minority (complaining babies who can't deal with their neighbors) controlling the majority. This is a Democracy, majority rules. And another thing, How can a cat get to a pet bird?? No cage?? No brains?? Did anyone even confirm these complainers stories? "
" Kevin wrote on Sep 7, 2007 8:09 AM: " This is absurd. What, don't you folks have enough work to do, like.... controlling SPENDING!!! Brian Kirby... I'll remember to NOT vote for that name if I see it on a ballot. And I vote EVERY election. I can't tolerate stupidity. This is a case of the minority (complaining babies who can't deal with their neighbors) controlling the majority. This is a Democracy, majority rules. And another thing, How can a cat get to a pet bird?? No cage?? No brains?? Did anyone even confirm these complainers stories? " or
|
