At a recent Jefferson City Council meeting, a challenge was posed by the mayor for an organization to utilize a program to control the feral cat population.

Mayor Craig Berry announced at Tuesday night’s meeting a challenge for the People for Animal Welfare Society (P.A.W.S.) of Greene County organization to adopt the Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program with Alley Cat Allies. Berry said he wanted Police Chief Mark Clouse to contact the president of P.A.W.S. to encourage them to take on the challenge of implementing it. Berry explained why he issued the challenge.

“The City right now does not have the capacity to do anything like this. There seems to be a push to do it again. I believe they (P.A.W.S.) were the ones who brought the Alley Cat group in and I think they’ve got a working relationship with that group so they can go ahead and get it started.”

The TNR program was presented to the council at a meeting last month with Associate Director of Animal Shelter and Animal Control Engagement Alice Burton with Alley Cat Allies of Maryland. She told the Council that there is funding available and the intention is to not have taxpayers pay for the program.

Mayor Pro-Tem Harry Ahrenholtz and Councilmember Dave Sloan serve on the law enforcement committee. Ahrenholtz told Raccoon Valley Radio their work on the feral cat issue will continue.

“What we want to be able to do is come to an ultimate conclusion on the best way to move forward with this thing. We want to take care of the citizens of Jefferson. We want to be able to do it in the most effective way possible.”

The issue of feral cats came to light in April of 2018 after the City suspended its service of offering live traps to residents for removing live animals from private property in town.