ST. CLAIR SHORES, Mich. (WXYZ) — During a meeting at St. Clair Shores City Hall Monday night, animal rescuers are hoping to voice their concerns, as city council is ready to set the record straight.
Watch the video report below:
Independent cat rescuer Aimee Lincoln has been TNRing, which stands for Trap-Neuter-Return, for more than a decade.
"I just saw a need in our community," Lincoln said.
Currently taking care of a colony of cats in St. Clair Shores, which is allowed by the city, Lincoln told me she was shocked to see the topic of TNR on the meeting agenda, fearing any sort of crackdown on the work they do will be harmful to the cats and kittens they're trying to save.
"They want to inspect where we're keeping these cats, which they go in a trap for 24 to 48 hours, so I'm not sure how that's applicable and what is the cost to us volunteers for doing that, and it sounds to me like they're asking us to acquire a second certification," she said.
Diana Rascano, former president of the nonprofit 4 Paws 1 Heart, is also concerned. She is hoping the city is more transparent with the changes they're asking for.
"I don't think we need the bureaucracy of more rules that we can hardly keep up with already,” Rascano said.
Watch our extended interview with Aimee Lincoln in the video player below:
Linda Bertges, a city council member and new interim chair for the Animal Care and Welfare Committee, says she's hoping to stop misinformation from spreading.
"There are a lot of colonies that do not have any problem in St. Clair Shores. It's just really probably one or two that have come up in the past year or so that has gotten out of control because people were not following proper ways of doing this," Bertges said.
She says the current situation isn't working.
"There's no training or anything that really is going to help this program. It was just kind of out there," Bertges said.
The lack of training and regulations, she says, are causing hoarding issues and cat colonies that are out of control.
"We're trying to step in to try to clean up the mess and get it brought back to an orderly fashion," she said.
A concern for rescuers who have been doing this for a while is that the city is coming in and possibly “policing” the efforts they’re passionate about.
"We're not coming in to police. We're making sure that people have the right tools for the job. You just don't want people out there just coming up with their own agenda of how they think this should be done. And if we're going to help with getting this paid for, we need to have concise and clear ordinances and structure to this," Bertges said.
Rascano is asking for a seat at the table.
“And just coming up with a reasonable plan to figure out how we're going to help these animals not procreate at the numbers they do," she said.
Rascano says the most important thing community members can do when it comes to keeping the cat population under control is spay and neuter and keep them inside.
"There's no reason to have a cat and have that cat exposed to the dangers of the outdoors. If you want a pet, please keep that cat inside," she said.
Council members are expecting a large turnout at the meeting.
