Why is man's solution always to KILL IT?
"Colony of feral cats gets reprieve; Property manager swayed by e-mails, telephone calls" by Megan Woolhouse, Globe Staff | August 9, 2008
A Franklin condo association's plan to trap and exterminate a colony of feral cats was temporarily called off yesterday due to public outcry.
Roy Blanchard, manager of the property, said his office has been swamped with calls and e-mails demanding that the roundup be called off.
"I've been threatened and the e-mails just won't stop and the phone calls just won't stop," Blanchard said. "People are very emotional about these cats. I'm getting calls from people in Maine. Calls from lawyers."
In June, the Highwood Condominiums owners' association voted unanimously to remove the cat colony by hiring a contractor to trap all stray cats on their property.
Residents said they were tired of cat problems. The animals left footprints on their clean cars, sprayed on shrubs and outdoor furniture, and often cried shrilly into the night. The roundup was supposed to begin yesterday, but after a local newspaper publicized the conflict, the hue and cry caused the company to call it off. At least for now.
That has pleased 81-year-old Dottie Luff, who refers to herself as the condos' "crazy Cat Lady." Luff, who has lung cancer, walks into the woods twice a day to feed the cats. She said that there are as many as 15 cats living in the woods, and that they are like children to her.
"My doctor said the cats are what's keeping me alive," Luff said. "I have no intention of stopping feeding them."
Luff and her friends - a "bunch of old dames," she said - began feeding stray cats in the neighborhood more than a decade ago because they felt sorry for them. That caused the feral cat population to soar to more than 200 by some counts. One resident said the woods behind the condominium "looked like it was moving" because of all the cats running around there.
Residents were sickened. The animal control officer, a cat shelter, and Luff offered a truce: They created a cat colony in the woods, offering the cats a "feeding station" and shelter created from old dog houses.
They would also see to it that the cats were fixed and immunized; sick ones were euthanized. Cat shelter volunteers and Luff agreed to feed the cats daily. Luff has continued her work feeding the cats. She said she brings them at least 220 cans of wet food a week, at her own expense.
But some want to see the cat colony gone.
Marilyn McAneny, a condo association board member and no fan of the cats, said she and other tenants have been waiting for Luff to die before taking steps to shut it down. So when she learned that Luff had found a successor willing to take over her feeding duties after her death, it raised her ire.
McAneny, a restaurant manager, asked fellow board members to vote to have the cats removed.
Officials at Pioneer Property Management, which manages the condo complex, won't say what they plan to do next to address the problem. But McAneny said she's not backing down.
"Enough is enough," she said. "I'm a human being. I live here."Oh, I LOVE the ARROGANCE SPECISM!!
What gives YOU the right to life over OTHER SENTIENT BEINGS, huh?
