Defending God's Creatures

Recently a disgruntled neighbor captured our cat and encouraged a citation. I was issued a citation for one of our cats "Running at Large". This feud has been going on since we moved 3 years ago and were graciously greeted by this neighbor with "your cat is running in our yard and I will trap your cat if you don't contain it...and you need to put it in a cage." We now own an underground invisible fence which attempts to contain our cats to our back yard through warning beeps on a collar followed by a brief shock if they continue through the line. It has proven effective for one of our cats...but unfortunately Kenya the one who was trapped learned a way to beat the system. We have done all within our power to be a good neighbor, repairing any damage our cat may have caused and giving her chicken wire to protect her garden and still she maliciously entices Kenya to her yard with tuna to trap him. Knowing her intent we feared that she would capture our cat and remove their collars so they would be abandoned at the pound and euthanized; we micro-chipped our cats.

Please help support our cause to fight the city on the "running at large" law being applied to domestic, immunized, spayed/neutered cats.

------------------------------------

Trapping cats in violation of an “Animal Running at Large”(code 5-1-10) does the following:

-Control Disease throughout the animal/cat population
Problems with this argument:

1. Immunized cats do not spread disease
2. Domestic cats keep feral or wild cats at bay. (Example our street in Orem.)
3. Control the rodent population which carry diseases especially harmful to humans
   Make bird population stronger, killing slow/sick birds (which can also spread disease to humans; particularly with the bird flu scare which may spread to local birds)
4. Some cats also help control the insect population
   

-Controls the cat population
Problems with this argument:

1. Cat that are Neutered & Spayed as kittens will never reproduce
2. They help control population by scaring away reproducing males & female in heat, and feral cats
3. 5-6-1. Allowable Number of Dogs and Cats. (Already controls the domestic pet population)
   

-Helps protects neighbors and their property
Problems with this argument:

1. There are other laws that protect neighbors & owners from the nuisances or harm of domesticated cats which allow rights for the animal and it's owner & and resolve problems in a more peaceful manor:
   5-1-11. Sanitation. (making an owner responsible for their pets defecation)
   5-4-2. Control of rabies and rabid animals.
   5-4-3. Quarantine and disposition of biting or rabid animals.
   5-1-9. Nuisance animals. (opening up the situation to an objective investigations...not 1 sided)
   

-Encourages cats to be contained
Problems with this argument:

1. Cat by nature stock and evade making it nearly impossible to contain them
2. The Benefits of rodent control and disease prevention for the surrounding neighborhood far outweigh the cons (See 1. Exceptions)
3. There are no leash law for cats
4. Con: Caged cats become untrusting and feral…becoming unadoptable…leading to euthanizing to animal (Causing psychological trauma that could otherwise be prevented is abusive)
5. A cat cannot be trapped without baiting a trap
   -Tuna or chicken is the encouraged bait
   -This attracts the cats by their amazing sense of smell to coerced onto a neighbor’s property having an adverse affect of a neighbor wishing to keep away from their yard
   

-Entices a feuding Neighbor to kidnap another neighbor's family pet
Problems with this argument:

1. 5-1-3. Cruelty to animals prohibited. States: It shall be unlawful for any person to maliciously secret or impound an animal belonging to another person.

In Closing:

The legal trapping of a known neighbor’s pets (using the Animal at Large citation) is in violation of Animal Cruelty and Animal Nuisance laws of Orem City. It allows for just one side of a situation. Neighborhood feuds with neighbors pet should take the proper channels of the Nuisance law allowing for both sides to be heard and the protecting of rights for the animals, owners.
(A complaint about another’s neighbors pet… should be handled by a formal complaint under the Nuisance Law of the Orem City Animal Control Municipal code.)