Stray Cat Laws

(Petaluma, California) Realizing that just about anything can be voted into existence in a democracy, this story shouldn't be surprising. The Petaluma City Council passed an ordinance to ban stray cats from certain locations, notably city parks, while allowing them to roam freely in the rest of the city. Since cats cannot read, compliance with the ordinance will be the responsibility of "stray cat caretakers" licensed by the city.

To me, this seems to be the wrong way to captain a ship. The City Council is encouraging the growth of the stray cat population by not taking action to rid the city of the problem. Apparently, there are a lot of cat lovers in Petaluma. Personally, I've always considered stray cats to be no different than stray dogs, rats, or other vermin which cause damage to property and carry disease. In fact, cats have an additional nasty feature. They climb trees and devastate the songbird population by eating the hatchlings.

I also wonder what kind of qualifications must a person have to become a Licensed Stray Cat Caretaker.

It should be noted that individual communities handle their stray cat problem in varieties of ways. For example, Dearborn, Michigan, kills the strays they collect, while Toledo, Ohio, provides their strays with taxpayer-funded stray cat health care. Presumably, healthy stray cats are robust and capable of defending their turf against invading non-indigenous strays.

I couldn't make this stuff up.