City Council beseeched about cats | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer. I almost did not post this one, although I do appreciate the work that the Observer did to bring this story to our readers. In actuality, I will not let my decades of acquired wisdom cloud my judgement on this one, so please enjoy the comedy here below.

    The Washington City Council spent much of its meeting Monday (9-12-11) listening to comments from the public. What to do about the feral cats was the big issue, if you count the amount of time spent on it, while the bad drainage issue came up again.

    The first person to speak was Linda Witchell who talked about the flooding associated with Jack Creek. There is some good information here, even if you are not impacted by drainage in that watershed. The cost of correcting it could significantly impact every taxpayer in the city.

    Then Nancy O'Neill and Monica Ferrari spoke as advocates for the feral cats while Shannon Blackstone and Scott Campbell spoke as property owners in the downtown district asking that the policy against feeding the cats and other animals not be rescinded.

    Susan Zachary spoke in commendation of the city staff's recovery efforts following Hurricane Irene.

    The first video is Witchell, O'Neill and Ferrari.




    The second clip is Zachary, Blackstone and Campbell




    Commentary

    The Observer staff has vigorously debated the cat issue and has concluded that we should swap cats. That is, catch all the Washington cats and ship them to Key West and take all the Key West cats and put them downtown. If you're not familiar with Key West you will want to know that Key West is famous for its polydactyl cats . Even Ernest Hemingway wrote about them. Probably because it was reported that he owned, or at least fed, some of the six-toed felines of Key West. Anything to attract more visitors to Downtown. And we really need a Six Toed Cat restaurant downtown.

    Seriously, we think they ought to outlaw cats. After all, you can't let your dog run loose in town so why should cats be allowed to do so? It's discrimination. That's what that is. We just can't have alley cats roaming free. They must be controlled. Control is essential for a nice city. These cats not knuckling under to the City's control may lead to teenagers who hang out on the Parkway deciding that they aren't going to submit to the City's control. And we can't have the City losing control of anything. Shucks, if they are going to have to control a guy who wants to run a taxi cab, they surely are going to have to control cats. If the beavers find out that the city is allowing people to feed cats then we really are going to have a drainage problem downtown.

    We're just kidding. Honestly, we think it is a problem. But the problem of 25 feral cats downtown is nothing compared to the number of cats and dogs that are euthanized every week at the Animal Control Shelter. Why are these "Downtown Cats" more deserving of living than those gassed every year at the Shelter? Maybe we ought to expand our vision of what the real problem of unwanted animals is and what can be done about it.

    But with regard for the Downtown Cat Situation, we will be serious. This is not, in our opinion, an issue the City should be spending a lot of resources on. We view it as a private property matter. If a property owner downtown has a problem with the cats, let that owner take care of the problem as they deem fit. This problem does not compel a governmental solution. We think it patently absurd that the "Police Chief would be put in charge of enforcing a don't feed the animals ordinance." If herding cats is what the police are spending the City's resources on then there are some other more important decisions that the Council needs to be considering.

    Hearding cats is not the top priority right now:



    On a more serious note there were some serious recognitions handed out at the council meeting. You can watch those below: