First, I want to thank the council for allowing this dialogue.
I am a fervent supporter of Trap-Neuter-Return (or TNR) because it is the only humane and effective approach to community cats. I’d like to use this time to briefly explain who community cats are and why TNR needs to be supported in our community.
Community cats, also called feral cats, are unowned cats who live outdoors. Animal control's outdated approach to community cats has been to catch cats and bring them to a shelter where they will be killed because they are not socialized to people and therefore unadoptable.
Catching and killing cats creates an endless, expensive cycle of cruelty that wastes taxpayers’ money. Removing cats from an area is futile because it results in population increases as an influx of new, unsterilized cats move into the same area to take advantage of available resources and reproduce. This well-documented natural phenomenon is known as the “vacuum effect.” Rather than continue to kill healthy animals year after year at our expense, it’s time for Fljótsdalshérað to consider Trap-Neuter-Return. In some places in Iceland cats have even been killed illegally which is a violation of Icelandic animal protection laws.
Thousands of communities have adopted an official TNR ordinance or policy, and thousands more conduct grassroots, volunteer-led programs. These numbers continue to rise as more communities realize the outdated approach of catching and killing cats is cruel and ineffective. It’s time for the cats and residents of Fljótsdalshérað to experience the long-term benefits of TNR firsthand.