ASHLAND
The Independent
By JOHN CANNON
August 28, 2008 04:34 am
—
On Aug. 18, Mike Wilson had an “In Your View” letter published in The Independent warning Ashland residents that the city was setting out baited traps to capture cats that freely roam through neighborhoods.
Wilson wrote that he had just paid $40 to retrieve two of his cats from the Boyd County Animal Control Center that had been caught in traps that had been set out by Ashland animal control officers because of an “undocumented complaint” by one neighbor.
At 9 a.m. that day, two city animal control officers came to his Elmwood Avenue home to deliver citations charging Wilson with two counts of having cats without rabies tags and two counts of creating a “nuisance” by not confining his cats to his property.
Wilson doesn’t believe the arrival of the two officers just hours after his letter appeared in the newspaper was a coincidence. Instead, Wilson — a retired captain with the Huntington Police Department who now is the director of the Huntington Municipal Parking Board — believes the citations were issued in retaliation for his “In Your View” letter.
“I can see why more people are hesitant to air their opinion,” he wrote in an e-mail.
But Ashland Animal Control Officer Corey Kazee said Wilson is wrong. In fact, he said he had tried to deliver the citations on Aug. 15 but Wilson was not home.
Such citations are not unusual, Kazee said. In fact, if the owner of a cat that has been trapped by the city picks up the pet from the animal control center, Kazee said he can just about guarantee that person will be cited for allowing his cat to run free and, if the cat has no rabies tag, for violating the city ordinance requiring pets to wear rabies tags.
Since the city does not have a “leash law” for cats, Wilson said he was unaware owners could be required to confine their cats to their property.
But an ordinance enacted in 2000 states that if there is a complaint filed by neighbors, cats running free can be declared a public nuisance and picked up by animal control officers.
Annette Lake, who lives two doors from Wilson, filed the complaint with the city about cats digging in her yard, urinating on her lawn furniture and destroying plants.
“I’m not against anyone having cats and other pets,” Lake said. “I don’t hate cats, but I do believe that if you have a cat, you should be a responsible pet owner.
“I spend a lot of time working in the yard and pay for a lawn service,” she said. “Why should I have to pay for the damage done to my yard by someone else’s cats?”
Lake said she first went to the animal control center to ask about getting a cat trap and was told the city supplied the traps.
“I went through the proper channels. I filed a formal complaint, and the city put out the traps,” she said. “I don’t set the traps and I don’t check them. That’s the city’s job.”
At the time she filed her complaint, Lake said she wasn’t sure who owned the offending cats. She said there are at least five cats that are regular uninvited and unwanted visitors to her property.
Kazee said in the seven years he has been a city animal control officer he probably has delivered several hundred cats to the Boyd County Animal Control Center that have been caught in traps put out by the city because of complaints made by residents. While Wilson picked up his cats from the center, Kazee said that’s the exception instead of the rule.
“Most of the cats we pick up probably are strays,” Kazee said. They are put up for adoption, and if not adopted, eventually euthanized.
Ashland Mayor Pro Tem Kevin Gunderson said the city’s animal control officers do not routinely pick up cats running loose in the city. If residents make a complaint concerning cats, the city will set out traps — but only on the property of the person making the complaint.
“We do not set out traps around the city just to catch cats,” Gunderson said. “Our enforcement is strictly in response to complaints.”
After reading Wilson’s letter, Sue Moon, who lives nearby on Forest Avenue, became concerned that her cats could be caught in a trap. She called the city to express her concern.
“I didn’t want any of my cats trapped,” Moon said. “If the city is setting out traps, shouldn’t we be warned?”
Sue Moon and her husband, Allen, own seven cats. Five of them are house cats. There is little or no chance of them being caught in a trap.
However, two of the cats live outside, including a cat that lives under the Moons’ porch that they feed but is too wild to touch. Because of that, that one cat — who the Moons call Regis — has not had its rabies shots. Regis is the one she is most worried about being trapped.
Gunderson, who owns cats, said he knows the Moons well and they are “good people.” He said Sue Moon is “being as responsible as she can be” in her care of Regis because he won’t let humans touch him.
After Sue Moon called the city from her place of employment, Allen Moon said Kazee and at least one city police officer visited his home. He admits the conversation with the animal control officer became a bit heated and left him quite upset.
“Our cats are very dear to us,” Sue Moon said. “They are like our children. We don’t want anything to happen to any of them.”
Kazee gave Moon a copy of the city’s animal control ordinance with the section about cats highlighted.
“I guess I have been warned,” Moon said.
Wilson is slated to appear in Boyd District Court on Sept. 10 to respond to the city’s citations.
In response to Wilson’s complaints, Gunderson said he listened to a tape of the meeting between Kazee and Wilson. He said, while it did get a little heated, he did not think anyone did anything improper.
Gunderson, a former Ashland police officer who was wounded in the line of duty, said a lot of young law enforcement officers need to learn that 99 percent of the people they meet are good, law-abiding people and 1 percent are bad. “You don’t treat the 99 percent like you do the 1 percent.”
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