Gov. Carney signed a bill Monday that advocates are calling a big win for free-roaming cats and their caretakers.
The new law encourages sterilization and vaccination of free-roaming cats by recognizing “return to field” programs and adding free-roaming cats to the list of qualifying factors for participation in the state low-cost spay/neuter fund.
Shelters in Delaware are required to hold animals for a minimum period of 72 hours so they can be adopted or reclaimed.
But advocates say most free-roaming cats will never be adoptable for behavioral reasons— so the new law exempts them from the minimum stray holding period.
Advocates say this will free up shelter resources.
“If a feral cat were brought in, they’re not candidates for adoption,” said Walt Fenstermacher, Delaware director for the Brandywine Valley SPCA.
“So most shelters would not bring them into their facilities for that reason. But now that HB 235 has been signed into law, shelters are actually able to spay or neuter a feral cat, not necessarily bring it in for adoption, but at least make sure it’s sterile, and be able to return it to the field,” said Fenstermacher.
The new law also allows free-roaming cats that have been spayed, neutered or vaccinated to be marked with an “ear-tip,” or small cut in the outer ear that signifies they’ve been sterilized.
Best Friends Animal Society’s Legislative Attorney Lee Greenwood says “return to the field” programs are the only model scientifically proven to reduce free-roaming cat populations, because cats reproduce so quickly.
“The traditional model of dealing with free-roaming cats is you try to catch as many of them as you can, and you bring them to the shelter, you have the mandatory stray hold period and then most of them end up being euthanized or killed,” said Greenwood. “And we simply can’t catch and kill our way out of the problem.”
Greenwood notes the new law includes free-roaming cats under the state animal cruelty statute.
The law also reduces potential penalties for caretakers of free-roaming cat colonies— by specifying that caretakers are not owners.
