Correspondence - Non Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Becerra, Alexis From: Michael Mavrovouniotis < Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2025 8:36 AM To: eComment Subject: General Public Comment for City Council: OC Animal Care abandonment of cats. Attention: This email originated from outside of City of Santa Ana. Use caution when opening attachments or links. Voice of OC, September 16, 2025 What's Going On With the Cat Colonies at Cypress College? https://voiceofoc.orq/2025/09/whats-going-on-with-the-cat-colonies-at-cypress-college/ Excerpts (from the last section of the article): Still No Catch & Release Program for Orange County's Cats These programs — known as trap, neuter and return (TNR) — release unowned cats back where they were found after a spay or neuter to prevent the community cats from having more litters. While it's commonly offered across the state and nation, Orange County's animal shelter continues to refuse to offer this kind of service. Activists have spent years calling for the shelter to reinstate TNR in order to help reduce the increasing number of kittens and feral cats on the streets. A recent San Diego Superior Court ruling found the San Diego Humane Society's catch and release program is legal as long as it remains only for community cats with no signs of ownership — since releasing lost or abandoned pets is still considered animal abandonment. OC Animal Care also does not accept healthy stray cats into the shelter and directs people who have trapped a healthy stray cat to return it where it was found. To the Voice of OC article, I personally want to add this: This shows exactly what happens without TNR: You get conflict. In one corner, the people who are troubled by cat colonies and want them to "go away'. In the other corner, people who don't want cats to suffer and want to continue to give them food and water. TNR is the solution compatible with both concerns and the humane treatment of the cats. TNR stops the proliferation of cats in a humane way. No cat is killed, but the population goes down overtime. OC has the audacity to use "abandonment" as the excuse, when what it's doing is abandonment by proxy: By telling people to put cats back where they found them, OCAC is contributing exactly to the problem we see in Cypress College. Are you going to continue tolerating the inhumane conditions of cats in your city? Or are you going to ask OCAC to do its job? Why should you renew the contract (which runs out next year), if OCAC is failing?