An Iowa town has conditionally backed off on its plan to pay a $5 bounty for feral cats and instead will consider a proposal offered by a coalition of animal welfare groups, including Best Friends, Alley Cat Allies and Friends to Felines.

Vance Trively, mayor of Randolph, agreed to meet with coalition representatives after mounting protests by animal welfare groups across the country, including Best Friends. Our Animal Help team, through the Best Friends Network, began marshalling volunteers and resources, and coordinating with local groups. For more details, read the full story of the effort.

The coalition will meet March 17 in Omaha to draft the proposal, which will be discussed with the mayor, then presented at a special town council meeting in Randolph three days later.

The plan is expected to include a trap/neuter/return/maintain component using a mobile clinic and Best Friends volunteers to trap the cats, perform spay/neuter surgeries and relocate any feral cats to safe, free-roaming colonies. Adoptable cats will be placed with rescue groups.

Local organizations have come forward with offers of help, including Fry’s Country Bargains, the Animal Protection and Education Charity, and a local veterinarian who has committed to performing the surgeries.

Town officials approved the bounty after receiving numerous complaints, ranging from a cat attacking a small dog to a dozen cats showing up at the food bowl when a resident tried to feed his own cat.

There are dozens of stray cats around the small southwest Iowa town, which has a population of about 200.

Under the bounty policy, stray cats without collars would be taken to a veterinarian in the nearby town of Sidney (Randolph has no vet clinic), where they’d be kept “for a time for people to claim them,” Trively told the Associated Press. Unclaimed cats would be euthanized and buried.

“You can't just let them keep multiplying in town,” the mayor said. “One guy threatened to shoot all of them. I told him he couldn’t do that in town. Other people talk about poisoning them, but you can’t do that in town.”

A representative for the Humane Society of the United States told the AP that the organization doesn’t have a problem with euthanizing stray cats, but in Best Friends’ experience, there are better ways to manage them.

“Removing and euthanizing the cats is an ineffective way of controlling the feral cat population,” according to our Animal Help department. “It often results in what is known as the ‘vacuum effect’ – more cats show up within a few months and start breeding. This effect has been documented by several studies on feral cats and wildlife.”

Since the bounty went into effect March 1, two cats have been turned in. One died from poisoning, but the other was adopted by Friends to Felines.

Written by Michael Rinker
Photos by Troy Snow.

The work of Best Friends and the Best Friends Network is possible only because of your generous support. Click here to help us reach our goal of No More Homeless Pets.

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March 17, 2008 : 6:59 AM ET
posted by: diddybytcha

this low cost spay & neuter program has not been in service for a year yet. When the grant runs out it will be over. I also repeat: the public must voice their opinion to their legislators. It's much easier to find a scapegoat for the things you don't like and say "somebody somewhere ought to do something" this grant was applied for, and the vets who are doing the service were solicited by one of our kennel techs. She has given her own time for this. We all do this in some way. Many of us foster animals and we all work with rescues. I know tnr is a favorite on this forum, sorry I got off the subject.

March 16, 2008 : 6:15 PM ET
posted by: mantecaman

If you have low cost spay neuter programs and your shelter is still euthanizing cats there are a couple things to do to keep decreasing the death rate. Reach out more to the community and an incentive for people to get their pets fixed. See if you can offer free s/n to people who still think it's not worth the cost. Ask if a local vet could offer a free vet exam for these types of people when their pet gets neutered at the same time. Ask if a local pet groomer would give a free bath and grooming to a couple dogs or cats from these owners. I know one rescue group got so sick of the same people purposely letting their dogs and cats breed every year and many were brought into the shelter, the group decided to have the people's names advertised in their local paper along with the story of pet overpopulation and the euthanasia rates at their shelter. They were threatened with a law suit but it didn't go anywhere since it was their right to report their names. I know some of the people got their animals fixed because they received hate mail and phone calls from angry pet lovers. That was going to extremes and I think it's better to spend most of your time reaching the rest of the public who don't need a whole lot of pushing to get their pets fixed. They just need to understand the importance of it and told in the right way. Your shelter should also have an aggressive TNR program. Most likely the kittens that come into your shelter are from ferals and strays people are feeding. Once you put a stop to the ferals reproducing there will be more cage space freed up for other animals meaning more will find homes.

March 16, 2008 : 5:56 PM ET
posted by: fedupwiththis

We don't think shelter workers want to kill all these animals. ALL THE MORE REASON TO ADOPT THE NO KILL POLOCIES WE TALKED ABOUT. Stop the finger pointing, stop the blaming and get your shelter director or someone else in his place to start these programs. We all know there are stupid animal owners who let their pets breed but when the community starts doing the right thing there can be homes for these animals born from the idiotic pet owners.

March 16, 2008 : 5:40 PM ET
posted by: diddybytcha

Even when low cost altering is offered for low income individuals, many are not interested. Persons can seldom be forced by law to have their animal "fixed". Shelters are bound by the laws in the community, and that is the way it should be. These laws are made by persons who were elected by the public. Therefore, if you are not pleased with the shelter, the laws they are bound by, call your congressman, write the mayor, contact anyone who will listen and has some governmental influence. Tell them what you want. They are there to serve you. Guinea15 is correct about the shelter employees, they don't want to kill animals. Also, next time you enter a shelter, if you can even do it, please don't say, " I don't know how you can work here, it's so depressing." Try to remember the story about the boy saving the starfish one by one. I wouldn't want to give my job to someone else, for fear they may become tired or callous.

March 16, 2008 : 3:30 PM ET
posted by: have to disagree

have to disagree somewhat with the statement below. there are irresponsible pet owners and feral cat people who don't fix the cats. but like it was said before it is the job of the shelter to see that the animals needs are being met in their community and the tax payers dollars are being spent on life saving and prevention programs like spay neuter programs. they set the standard for their community and when they send a message to the community that it is ok to kill homeless animals people will follow along with that mentality. if the shelter said they were going to adopt the no kill equation laid out on the nokillsolutions.com website, the community would start to follow their lead.

March 16, 2008 : 3:16 PM ET
posted by: guinea15

I don't agree with the comments that the shelter systems are failing our communities, and that people are dumping their unwanted animals because they don't want them to go to a kill shelter. The overburdened shelters are the direct result of irresponsible pet owners who don't get their animals fixed. The people who work in these shelters certainly don't want to euthanize all these healthy animals, but what choice do they have? Feral cats are the direct result of irresponsible pet owners not getting their animals fixed and allowing them to run at large and breed. I do cat and kitten fostering for a Pgh shelter, and when kitten season is here it's so frustrating to see the hundreds of kittens that are brought in that wouldn't have been born if the adults had been fixed.

March 16, 2008 : 2:42 PM ET
posted by: kittygirl21

Can anyone help out this group that was posted on the Best Friends website last year? They got only a couple donations then. They just lost their last food supplier which also supplied food to many other groups in their area. Small nonprofits like this one are hit the hardest when the economy slows down. They are really hurting for donations. I can't bear the thought of their cats not getting fed. They are incredibly dedicated cat people. Article found here. Please read and help if you can. Ashley. http://network.bestfriends.org/california/news/19360.html

March 16, 2008 : 2:10 PM ET
posted by: proferals

I don't want to make excuses for people who dump or abandon their pets but this is a result of our shelter system letting down our communities. feralluver said it best that the city shelter is there to serve you, homeless animals and feral cats. People that dump their pets are doing that because they don't want to take the animal to a kill facility. No kill shelters usually have long waiting lists. It is an end result of a failed system where it started crumbling at the top and everything else falls afterward. Not enough spaying and neutering done means full shelters and animals dumped and no kill shelters have waiting lists nobody can get into. We need to stop at the top of this problem and fix these animals. Then these other problems will go away. Geez it's not rocket science!!!!!

March 16, 2008 : 1:29 PM ET
posted by: diddybytcha

It is against the law to "dump" or abandon animals. It is just very difficult to catch the perpetrators. They usually bring their unwanted animals to a place where they are not visible doing the deed. Occasionally people will say they saw, for instance, a white pickup truck leaving puppies at the end of their road. By the time the homeowner runs out to see the license plate the truck is gone and all that is left are the puppies.