UPDATEAugust 19, 2020:
The Casper City Council has postponed a vote on the proposed feeding ban against cats outdoors. Thank you to all the dedicated advocates who contacted their City Council members and came out to demonstrate on behalf of Casper’s community cats at the meeting August 18. The Council is now taking a second look at the proposal to consider more options. The feeding ban is scheduled to come up again for a vote on September 1.
We cannot let this proposal pass or cats in Casper will starve and residents will be penalized simply for feeding cats in their own yards. If you live in Casper, please continue to urge your Council members to reject the feeding ban using the message in our action alert.
UpdateAugust 18, 2020:
The Casper City Council isn’t listening. They are continuing to move forward with a measure that would starve cats outdoors and make it a CRIME for Casper residents to feed themeven on their own property.
TODAY, Tuesday, August 18, there will be a final hearing to discuss the proposal. If you live in Casper, join your fellow advocates in attending a demonstration in front of City Hall, plus the City Council meeting shortly afterwards.
Bring your friends, family, and everyone you know. The more people present, the stronger our voice will be. The Casper City Council needs to see that people in Casper care about cats and oppose a feeding ban.
Your council won’t stop this deadly measure unless they see you. Please attend both the demonstration and the meeting. Arrive no later than 4:30 p.m. MDT. Learn more in our action alert.
OriginalAugust 7, 2020:
Casper, Wyoming, is on the verge of passing a cruel and unacceptable ordinance that would make it illegal to feed community cats, sometimes referred to as feral cats.
Criminalizing feeding community cats will prohibit residents from conducting Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), the only humane and effective approach for managing populations of community cats. Outlawing feeding and TNR will fail to achieve any positive outcomes, cause suffering and death of cats, punish compassionate residents and sabotage efforts to stabilize community cat populations.
A final reading of the ordinance is scheduled for August 18th, and if Council votes to approve, it will become law.
Casper, Wyoming Residents: Take Action NOW. Ask your Council members to vote against the ordinance and meet with Alley Cat Allies to discuss humane approaches to cats.
Casper City Council members are pushing forward with this feeding ban without doing their homework, at a time when it is challenging for the public to participation in the discussion. The Council has chosen to listen to misinformation rather than scientific facts and data from experts and information from other localities about what works and what does not.
Casper’s feeding ban would make it “unlawful for any person to provide shelter, feed, or to otherwise entice” a community cat on public or private property. This would mean:
- Anyone could be charged with a CRIME for putting a dish of kibble on their own front step;
- The City could fine you for something you do on your own property;
- The City would waste valuable taxpayer money in a time of economic crisis to support a policy that is proven ineffective.
The City Council doesn’t understand community cats or how they behave. Cats are a domestic species who have lived alongside humans for thousands of years. They will not simply disappear because of a feeding ban. Instead they will become much more visible as they search for new sources of food in Casper.
To abruptly discontinue feeding cats who have become accustomed to food and care is cruel and will lead to the death of some cats and to the suffering of many more.
Furthermore, putting in place a feeding ban will do nothing to reduce the population of community cats. In fact, it will actually have the opposite effect. Feeding bans make it impossible to sterilize and humanely manage cat population levels through TNR.
Casper is moving in the wrong direction on this issue. Over the past two decades, hundreds of communities have given up feeding bans, aware that they are cruel, fail to achieve any positive results, and prevent the implementation of effective cat population management approaches.
Feeding bans will never be acceptable or effective nor will they ever help reduce or manage community cat populations. Please take action now and tell your officials in Casper that you strongly oppose this proposed ordinance. Ask them to vote against the feeding ban and instead meet immediately with Alley Cat Allies to discuss humane, effective approaches including TNR.
Casper, WY residents: Take action now!
Not in Casper, WY? Please share to get the word out.
Learn more about feeding bans.