Cat limit draws hoard of residents

WEST SENECA, N.Y. (WIVB) - A proposal to impose a kitty limit per household has stirred up a cat fight in the southtowns.

The Town of West Seneca is proposing a new law that would limit four cats to every household. On Monday night, the public was given the chance to weigh in on this issue. A crowd packed the town courthouse both for and against the proposal.

Some say there's a big difference between the hoarding of cats, and taking care of the free roaming, feral cats.

Edy Offhaus of the Feral Cats Society said, "Community cats have been around and an intergral part of our society for hundreds of years. By limiting the four, I worry, what is going to happen to these community cats?"

Others had questions or concerns about their current situations.

Charles Slipfeld said, "I've complained to the town, previous administration and everything else. My flower beds are full of feces, urine all over."

James Barber added, "I can't trim my bushes, I can't spend any time in my backyard. You can walk down the street when there's a fan blowing and over a hundred feet away you can smell it. You can talk about animal rights all you want, but I'm talking about my personal rights, my quality of life."

Michelle Burger questioned, "What do I do in a situation where I have five cats? You're going to break it down to four, are you going to come and say you have to put one down?"

Town Supervisor Shelia Meegan said common sense would apply. But she does believe the law is necessary, saying there were 23 incidents in the last 90 days where police and code enforcers were called to a residence to deal with cats.

She also said similar laws of cat limits have been adopted and successful in both Lancaster and Hamburg.

The town board says it's still a long way away from making this proposal a law. They also said the public did bring up some valid point they hadn't thought of and they'll take some of the public's concerns and questions into consideration.