Ohio Residents: Stop Cedarville from Harming Cats

Ohio Residents: Stop Cedarville from Harming Cats

This action is ONLY for residents of Ohio

The village council of Cedarville, Ohio, is moving forward with a ridiculous and dangerous proposal that would lead to cats being killed, while outlawing acts of compassion toward cats, dogs and other animals in the village.

Cedarville Mayor John Cody Jr. and the village council will soon vote on three new ordinances. These measures would outlaw the feeding of community cats, prohibit bird feeders and squirrel feeders and even make barking dogs and chirping birds criminal activity. The proposals would institute new regulations and bureaucratic obstacles that would effectively end the practice in Cedarville of Trap-Neuter-Return, the only humane and effective approach toward managing populations of unowned community cats.

These proposals are utterly preposterous and far outside the mainstream. They will lead to more cats being killed, while criminalizing compassion toward all animals.

Tell Mayor John Cody Jr. and the village council to drop these ordinances and instead embrace a humane, life-saving approach for cats and other animals who live in the community.

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Dear {contact_data~title} {contact_data~firstName},

As a resident of Ohio, I urge you to reject ordinances 2023-06, 2023-07 and 2023-08, which would harm cats, dogs and birds, and instead turn to the humane, nonlethal alternatives that local and national experts have offered to the village.

The proposals would criminalize the act of feeding community cats and even birds in the village. Birdfeeders should not be illegal! And attempts to implement feeding bans will only cause cats to roam farther looking for food, making them more visible in the village – the opposite of your intent. Feeding bans are cruel and impossible to enforce, and they have proven to be ineffective around the country. They do not make cats disappear. These laws punish the good Samaritans who are working to improve conditions for cats and the community.

The ordinances would cause further harm by blocking Trap-Neuter-Return, or TNR, with bureaucratic obstacles. TNR is the mainstream, evidence-based approach to community cats.  TNR results in fewer calls to animal control, which leads to fewer cats being impounded and killed in shelters, saving taxpayer money. Cats are humanely trapped, spayed or neutered, vaccinated against rabies, eartipped for identification, and returned to their outdoor homes. TNR can not take place alongside a feeding ban. 
Providing food for the cats is a critical early step in the trapping process.

The 30-day period to secure an agreement will hinder TNR, because cats can produce more offspring during that time. Registration requirements such as this have been tried and abandoned before. They slow the process of TNR and allow more kittens to be born. Registration policies are expensive and time consuming to implement, manage and enforce. They result in fewer cats being spayed or neutered, which will lead to more cats roaming the village.

Cedarville has the opportunity to embrace modern, effective and humane policies for the cats and other animals who live in the village, while maintaining support from the volunteers who are giving their own time and money to improve this community. I ask you to vote NO on these ordinances and take advantage of the expertise being offered to Cedarville by the regional and national experts on managing populations of community cats.

Kind regards,
{user_data~First Name} {user_data~Last Name}
{user_data~Address 1} {contact_data~city} {contact_data~postalCode}