The Schenectady County SPCA won’t pursue criminal charges for people participating in a controversial method of feral cat population control.
Matthew Tully, now former chief humane officer for the Schenectady County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, announced on Wednesday, Dec. 28, the agency wouldn’t arrest anyone engaging in “trap, neuter and return.”
The act, commonly referred to as TNR, is when someone humanely traps feral cats, has them spayed or neutered and vaccinating against rabies and then returns the animals to their colony. Engaging in TNR is a crime under state law and is punishable by up to one year of imprisonment and possibly a fine up to $1,000.
“Nothing has caused more controversy than that advisory that we weren’t going to press charges,” Tully said on Friday, Dec. 30. “We took this stance because this law in particular is an area of extreme controversy in the animal community.”
In the past several weeks, Tully said the SPCA received two calls related to instances of TNR practice. Police officers are required by law to make animal cruelty arrests, but since SPCA officers are not police officers they’re not required to make an arrest.
“The reason why this is causing such a stir is because it is a common practice in this area,” Tully said. “There are a lot of well intentioned people trying to control the feral cat population and one of the few ways to do it is this way.”
Tully said he felt the SPCA’s limited resources could be better used in other areas.
“We think that this is just a weird area of law that is just so hotly contested that we don’t want to get our resources in,” he said. “We are a very specialized charity, we are not police … we are not obligated to investigate everything that comes in our way.”
Tully added that he believes under certain circumstances TNR could be criminal behavior. He said there is a difference between someone returning the animal to its home as opposed to releasing it into the wild.
The positions of larger advocacy groups show the trickiness of the issue.
The New York State Humane Association doesn’t support it “except in rare supervised instances” where the feral cat colony is safe from environmental extremes, human cruelty and vehicular death. Also, there would need to be long-term care provided for the animals by caregiver staff. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals conversely states TNR is “the only humane and effective method to manage feral cat colonies,” as stated on its website.
Tully said the county SPCA isn’t affiliated with the ASPCA and he said the county SPCA doesn’t support or oppose TNR.
Tully said the controversy over TNR is primarily focused on female cats being spayed, because oftentimes the feral cat is released into the wild out of veterinarian care before stitches heal. Male cats require less time to recover fully from surgery.
“It is a shame that such a simple thing of catching feral cats is such a complicated legal problem,” Tully said. “There is no case law to support the arrest of everybody doing it.”
But the most important factor is economics.
“The amount of time and energy we would have to exhaust to prove somebody is doing that would be extensive,” he said, “The economics require us to prioritize the cases we handle.”
