California’s East Bay Regional Park District (East Bay Parks) adopted a new policy in June that calls for cats in their parks to be hunted down, shot, and killed whenever it deems necessary. The cruelty and suffering involved is staggering. Alley Cat Allies is researching and investigating all possible options, including legal avenues, to stop the East Bay Parks’ policy.
East Bay Parks wrongly asserts that killing cats is helpful, required, and necessary in their efforts to protect endangered birds and mice. They are wrong on all counts. Alley Cat Allies is fully committed to the protection of endangered species and wants it done right.
Alley Cat Allies President and Founder Becky Robinson is the leading voice against the new policy. “It’s well past time for East Bay Parks to stop killing cats. The moral costs involved are far too high, it does not work, and it is not mandated by the Endangered Species Act.”
In Robinson’s ongoing communication with East Bay Parks, she has tackled this straight on, pointing out that there is nothing in the Endangered Species Act that requires East Bay Parks or anyone else to kill cats. This is just one of multiple examples of how park leaders have relied on incorrect information and even widely discredited pseudo-science as the basis for their decision.
The decision by East Bay Parks to enact this policy is in direct opposition to the will of the people whose tax dollars fund East Bay Parks and in whose communities East Bay Parks operates. By a margin of four to one, the public is opposed to cats being killed in their parks.*
Shooting cats angers the public and diverts time, attention, money, and good will from efforts that actually help protect and preserve endangered species and ecosystems.
