"We're just not going to be able to get accurate (stray cat reduction) counts," Health Officer Robert Roe told the Township Committee Tuesday during its Board of Health meeting.
His comment followed an update from Laure Himmelman of Fury Hearts Rescue, which was authorized by the TC last year to launch the pilot program. The group was given special exemption to trap, feed and spay/neuter cats in an effort to reduce their population. The current law disallows the feeding of such cats by others.
She reported that since the beginning of 2015, the program has trapped, fed, neutered/spayed and released 124 cats. "If you consider how many litters a cat can have in the course of a year, we have probably already saved probably close to thousands of cats coming on to the streets of Maplewood," she said.
But she admitted that the reduction count is difficult to obtain.
When the program launched, TC Member Marlon Brownlee objected to it with the concern that measuring the success might be difficult and that it would just be a way to allow the feeding of strays. "I said this is exactly what we would be doing," Brownlee stated Tuesday.
"That's the fundamental criteria," Brownlee said about the measurement issue. "In the end we're just giving a backdoor way to allow people to feed feral cats."
TC Member Jerry Ryan offered a similar concern, telling Furry Hearts, "It's a lot easier to make a case for your program if you quantify it."
Mayor Vic De Luca urged both sides not to judge the success too quickly, stating, "In two years or so when we judge this we may find that the initial goal of reducing the feral population was not met. But there might be other goals that were met. This is a long process and the whole idea of a pilot is to learn."
The TC requested that Furry Hearts meet with Roe and create a plan to review the program and provide as much specific data on its effects before the next Board of Health meeting next month.
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