Orphan Cats Still Allowed on Leechburg Railroad Tracks
Residents of Leechburg voice their opinions to the Borough Council on allowing them to provide stray cats shelter last night during a special meeting.
By: Sarah Steighner
Leechburg Borough Councilmembers allowed residents and cat advocates alike to reinstate cat shelters in town after hearing from more than a dozen local residents at a special meeting last night.
Last month, Leechburg Borough Council members discussed removing the shelters, prompting citizen outcry.
Lisa Olsen and MaryAnn Kontino are two Leechburg residents who have been working for years to keep stray cats along the rail yard in good health as well as provide shelter for them.
These efforts have included providing cat shelters with straw and food to offer shelter for the animals. These shelter boxes provided a safe place for the animals to sleep, eat, and get away from other animals or predators.
However, those cat shelters were removed upon request from the borough council.
Olsen and Kontino, along with over 40 cat advocates showed up at the Council meeting Wednesday evening to address the issue and attempt to be granted back the permission to reinstate their cat shelters.
“We are here to ask that we be allowed to continue feeding, and sheltering 11 totally fixed cats, that were immunized and fixed,” Kontino said.
Gretchen Nowikowski is neighbors with Olsen and Kontino, and has seen their efforts towards taking care of these cats which has included capturing them, spaying or neutering them before the cats’ release using their own personal funds. This is often known as “TNR”: trap, neuter, return.
“This is something they (Olsen and Contino) love to do, they are not asking for money, and they are helping these poor animals that people in Leechburg have dropped off down by the river. These ladies are taking their time and their money to feed them, but for some reason the Borough is trying to stop it,” Nowikowski said.
Olsen was among one of roughly 15 people that spoke during the meeting. After thanking Council for providing the town a chance to speak, Olsen passed out selected pages from the Humane Society 2014 booklet resource section titled, “Managing Community Cats: A Guide for Municipal Leaders.”
“TNR isn’t just supported just by the Humane Society, isn’t just supported by ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) but at least a dozen other professional organizations, numerous municipalities, and multiple city and state public health departments for people, not the cat public. All these organizations are not just ‘crazy cat ladies’ but state of the art,” Olsen said.
Olsen proceeded to show five pages of citations that demonstrated why TNR, feeding, and sheltering works.
While the majority of people in attendance were directly a part of the efforts to shelter the local homeless cats, there was also other residents there to simply show their support and offer their opinion, such as Wanda Shaner.
Shaner is a local minister who has spent time helping with the Pennsylvania Wildlife Center and Tiger Haven in Harrisburg.
“I am here because as a minister and as a person, I value life. As these wonderful people have mentioned, these animals are a part of our community. I mean, where do we put an end to what life is important, and what life isn’t important?,” Shaner said.
She then continued to defend the cats by addressing complaints the Borough had received relating to the cats at the rail yard leaving a mess and smell on local public and private properties.
“Because of my experience with the wildlife center, I know that a lot of cats are being blamed for things they aren’t even doing,” Shaner said.
Extensive discussion between the Council and residents in attendance continued.
Council member Christian Vaccaro clarified that, after discussing this issue at their last meeting, they had decided to do nothing other than request the cat shelters be removed.
“The motion was nothing shall be done at this time, with consideration that Dr. Olsen would remove the boxes,” Vaccaro said.
Since the meeting was not advertised as a voting meeting, it was purely for informational purposes and no permanent decision was made.
“This is a non-voting meeting and the only thing that can really be done is to return the status quo and return them (the cat shelters) back to their original location,” Vaccaro said.
Therefore, Council did agree to take a consensus vote as to how to temporarily address the issues at hand.
A consensus was reached that the Council, as similarly decided upon at the last meeting, would take no action against the cats nor their housing. However, the cat shelters would be allowed to be reinstated to where they originally were before having been requested to remove.
Vaccaro did suggest that the group perhaps organize a bigger system of networking to help each other out with the costs and workload of their project.
Additionally, he proposed that the Council be regularly informed on their efforts.
“If we’ve decided to do nothing, then what we want is greater communication, greater organization; report back to council. We just leave things as they are. Allow the organization to operate, and we’ll continue no further action based on getting reports back to council regularly,” Vaccaro said.
Council member, Dan Logero applauded the groups enthusiasm on this issue but also issued a call to action for more town participation in other issues facing Leechburg - specifically a crime watch.
“I would like your support in trying to have a crime watch. We have much bigger problems in Leechburg, and I would really like your support and help on trying to get a community watch; a crime watch program going in this town. You’re real supportive of each other here, and I know that you’ll support the town. I would love your help,” Logero said.
Leechburg’s crime watch program has held one meeting thus far, and plans to continue monthly meetings on the first Thursday of each month at the Leechburg fire hall.
Council meets again in two weeks, at 7 PM June 16.
Regional News | Sarah Steighner June 4, 2015
By Just sayin, June 4, 2015 @ 10:25 PM
Most neutered cats won’t continue to spray. It’s most likely the “wild” animals causing the problems (i.e.skunks,raccoons).
If people would not let their animals roam and would get their animals spayed and neutered,in the first place, this problem would be nonexistent.