NORTH HAVEN, Conn. — The Town of North Haven is walking back a plan to trap and euthanize feral cats.
North Haven Animal Control announced the plan on social media Friday, sparking outrage and pushback amongst pet owners and animal advocates.
According to the post, the plan would have trapped cats starting next week around the Vineyard Road area and advertise the cats for seven days before being euthanized.
Following the pushback and concerns, First Selectman Michael Freda apologized and said cats would not be euthanized. He told FOX61 that he was not aware of Animal Control's decision to euthanize and was unaware of the Facebook post.
“I accept responsibility. I’m responsible for everything that goes on in this government including the decisions of people regardless of if I know about those decisions or not. In this case, I wasn’t happy with the decision, but I accept the responsibility for the decision and we’ve got some work to do internally to ensure that something like this gets the approval of both the police chief and I before a post is made,” said Freda.
Freda said the town will instead implement a “humane trapping protocol.”
"Knowing what I know, because I was for five years Chairman of the State Taskforce on the Humane Treatment of Animals in Shelters, I knew there were alternate solutions on this," Freda said. "Those alternate solutions were engaging the non-profits, the animal organizations who may have the ability to help us with what’s called Trap, Spay and Release,” said Freda.
The North Haven Police Department elaborated on the intention behind Animal Control's plans Friday, saying the issue stemmed from a feral cat recently attacking a family dog, which caused the dog to lose its eye and rack up thousands of dollars in medical bills for the owner. Other neighbors also reported issues with feral cats.
Animal advocates said feral cat colonies are an issue in several cities and towns around Connecticut.
“There are many feral cat colony people who are out there - day in, day out - who are with their own money feeding them, bringing them to vets, spayed and neutered. They’re really struggling,” said Holly Fontaine from Bikers Against Animal Cruelty.
Fontaine said she and other advocates are happy North Haven is walking back the plan to euthanize.
“This crisis has been going on for several years and now all of a sudden they’re going to jump in with something like this to address it. It’s not going to solve it,” said Fontaine.
Animal advocates are now calling on the state to boost funding for shelters, rescues and animal control officers.
“With all of the requests at a state level for funding for a lot of non-profits, I think that we have to find a solution locally to accept whatever vouchers our animal control officers can get but also engage those non-profits and develop fundraising activities to help the non-profits because there’s a lot of animal lovers out there all over Connecticut,” said Freda. “I also think the municipalities, we have an obligation to help support incremental funding in their budgets for this, to help animal control officers.”
Freda posted a statement regarding the plan reversal and new plan on his Facebook page, which said in part:
"The Police Chief and I got involved this afternoon and we are stopping any initiative that involved euthanizing these cats. Because of the numerous neighbor complaints about the cats, Animal Control will be initiating a Humane Trapping procedure...we are lining up non profit animal organizations who are willing to help us, to help these cats with an intake program and a Trap, Spay and Release program which I have always been a huge supporter of."
"Rest assured, this will not happen again and these cats will not be euthanized," Freda added.
Angelo Bavaro is an anchor and reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at abavaro@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook and X.
Leah Myers is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. She can be reached at LMyers@fox61.com
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