Jane Dawkins
SOUTH PITTSBURG, Tenn. – When South Pittsburg got a new mayor and two new city commissioners late last year, it didn’t take long for them to hear about problems with stray and feral cats.
“We’ve had calls for help, and we’ve had calls for complaints about destruction of property,” Mayor Jane Dawkins said. “There have also been concerns that [the cats] have not been vaccinated. We do have an overpopulation of cats.”
The city had been handling the issue “the old way,” she said, by catching a few stray cats every once in a while and then euthanizing them, but the problem wasn’t getting any better.
Last month, the City Commission was presented with a program called trap-neuter-release under which cats are captured, sterilized, vaccinated and returned to the areas where they were caught.
The board agreed to continue its moratorium on trapping and killing stray and feral cats “for a little while” so the city can move forward with the program.