Chairperson Henry Ingwersen
Chairperson Bill Pluecker
Joint Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry
Maine State Legislature
100 State House Station
Cross Building, Room 214
Augusta, ME 04333
RE: OPPOSE LD 644 (HP 421) – An Act to Include Cats in the Laws Governing Animal Trespass
Dear Chair Ingwersen, Chair Pluecker and Members of the Committee:
On behalf of Alley Cat Allies and our thousands of supporters in Maine, I am writing to urge you to oppose LD 644 (HP 421) – An Act to Include Cats in the Laws Governing Animal Trespass, a bill that would have far-reaching negative consequences for cats in the state, including unowned community cats, and the caregivers who volunteer their time for the benefit of these cats and the taxpayers of Maine. If enacted into law as it is currently written, this bill will create a barrier to the only humane and effective program that is saving cats’ lives and saving taxpayers’ money statewide: Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR).
Alley Cat Allies is the leading advocacy organization dedicated to protecting and improving the lives of all cats. We have promoted evidence-based and compassionate policies for cats since our founding in 1990, and we regularly work with lawmakers, shelters, and the public to change attitudes and advance lifesaving laws and policies that best serve the interests of cats.
Today, your constituents are volunteering their time and resources to carry out TNR, a solution for your communities and the cats of Maine. Through TNR, unowned community cats who live outdoors are humanely trapped, spayed or neutered, vaccinated, eartipped for identification, and returned to their outdoor homes. In communities without TNR, populations of cats continue to breed unchecked, and many of these community cats are impounded and then killed in shelters at taxpayer expense because they are not socialized to people and therefore not adoptable into homes.
LD 644 (HP 421) proposes to remove the current exception for cats from the state’s existing Animal Trespass law in section §4041. Given the reality that community cats throughout Maine are unowned, the proposed law would be unduly burdensome and both incredibly expensive and impossible to effectively enforce.
Many community cats are cared for by good Samaritan caregivers who are practicing TNR. In the majority of these scenarios, caregivers are performing this community service with their own time and money, without any funding support from their local municipality. This proposed law would likely have a chilling effect on this vital community service.
For some, trespassing may indeed be an unwanted behavior of cats. However, there are many humane deterrents to such behavior that do not require formal legislation. These simple solutions include motion-activated sprinklers, sandbox covers, deer netting over gardens, plastic forks or bamboo chopsticks staked in soil, chicken wire under mulch, and many others. Additional tips and best practices for coexisting with cats in the community are available from our website, alleycat.org, and many other sources online.
TNR is the mainstream approach to community cats and is unquestionably the present and future of animal control and animal sheltering in the United States. We are a nation of compassionate people who, when given a choice, consistently favor laws and policies that do not bring harm or death to cats. Please do not create a barrier to TNR that will impede the continuation and expansion of this lifesaving work.
We urge you to vote NO on LD 644 (HP 421) on behalf of your constituents, our supporters, and Maine’s community cats and caregivers.
Sincerely,
Calley Gerber
Alley Cat Allies