Edit: This story was updated to include commentary from Jasmine O'Keefe, animal services manager at League City Animal Care and Adoption Center.
Following public criticism from citizens and volunteers, League City Animal Care and Adoption Center officials paused the shelter’s trap, neuter and return program on Aug. 20, also known as TNR, to assess and evaluate how the shelter releases cats deemed “community cats" and created a digital space for the community to express concerns.
The big picture
TNR is the practice of humanely trapping, sterilizing, vaccinating for rabies, ear tipping and returning community cats near their original location, according to League City’s animal ordinances.
“Community cat” is an umbrella term describing cats that do not have an owner, which includes both unsocialized feral cats and friendly cats that might be fed by residents as strays. Some concerned residents said they felt many of the cats being released as community cats should be put up for adoption by the shelter rather than be released through TNR.
Monica Millican, the president of the nonprofit League City Pets Alive, who began volunteering at the shelter in 2007, said residents and volunteers were irritated by the fact the shelter was “nowhere near full,” yet friendly cats were still being released.
Millican also shared many of the volunteers were under the impression the TNR program only applied to feral cats, not friendly cats.
“That is all we ever discussed with regard to TNR. It was all feral cats,” Millican said. “Never was TNR ever associated with friendly cats.”
However, Animal Services Manager Jasmine O'Keefe said the term “friendly” operates on a scale and can include cats who are friendly but not the best candidate to live in a home indoors.
“It's called the Cat Socialization Continuum,” O'Keefe said. “Behavior is ever changing, not only just in the environment, but who you're around. So you may be super friendly and sweet with your feeder or owner, but then when you get here it may be totally different or the complete opposite.”
In an effort to bring the community into the animal shelter’s decision-making processes, League City created a webpage on League City Listens for residents to share thoughts and suggestions. Visitors to the page can participate in a survey about the community cats program, find policy resources and ask questions about the program.
“We love the feedback, and we love to be able to get more information on what the community really wants and what they see for it, and we'll go from there,” Animal Services Manager Jasmine O'Keefe said.
The conditions
In early August, League City officials hired American Pets Alive, the national arm of Austin Pets Alive, the no-kill shelter largely responsible for advocating for Austin to become a “no-kill” city, to conduct an independent third-party audit of the shelter’s TNR program.
Mara Hartsell, the American Pets Alive shelter support adviser who is conducting the audit of the shelter’s TNR policies, estimated 8 out of 10 cats the shelter takes in are processed through the adoption program.
In July, 174 cats and kittens were adopted or fostered, while seven were processed through the TNR program.What they’re saying
Hartsell said she expects to complete her audit within the next three months, after which she will share her findings with city leaders and community members.
“One thing that's definitely going to be happening next is that you'll see more community education, making sure that the community understands the vision that League City has for its TNR program plus the guardrails it has and safety nets it has built in for individual animals,” Hartsell said.
While those who expressed concern about the shelter's TNR program said they are happy that the program is paused, O'Keefe said she feels the pause has placed stress on the shelter and made it more difficult for staff to take care of each individual animal due to capacity issues.
“One is the increase in medical, due to cost and time,” O'Keefe said. “There's all these studies that show the longer they are here, the more likely they are going to get sick.”
Since TNR has been paused and the shelter does not euthanize for space, to move nonadoptable cats out of the shelter, staff has been processing cats through the shelter's working cat program, which delivers them to farms and offices to tackle mice populations.
“As much as it's successful and we do have it, it's always a struggle to reach out,” O'Keefe said. “We've had to drive hours out of town to get animals out because we want a live outcome.”
Patty Rytlewski, another shelter volunteer, alleged the cats were being released in locations where there were no verified feeders.
Hartsell said verified feeder lists are not always a good measurement of how well cats are being taken care of in a community, highlighting some cities have criminalized feeding stray cats and residents may fear legal repercussions even though League City doesn’t criminalize feeding community cats.
“So if you’re looking at it like, ‘OK, in this ZIP code, we may have a total of three people registered,’ [but] that doesn't mean that there are only three cat caretakers,” Hartsell said. “It just means that only three had the confidence, trust and available information to follow through with that administrative process.”
Rytlewski said she felt the shelter was pursuing “progressive policies” by releasing cats into underserved communities despite not having any verified feeders and that this policy came at the expense of the cats’ well-being.
What happens next?
Hartsell said she expects to complete her audit within the next three months, after which she will share her findings with city leaders and community members.
“One thing that's definitely going to be happening next is that you'll see more community education, making sure that the community understands the vision that League City has for its TNR program plus the guardrails it has and safety nets it has built in for individual animals,” Hartsell said.
Some residents also have ideas about how the shelter’s treatment of cats could be improved.
For instance, Millican drafted a letter to O’Keefe, requesting League City Pets Alive be allowed to foster cats housed in the stray hold room, giving them an opportunity to destress in a safe environment.
The shelter will host a Best Friend’s National Adoption Weekend from Sept. 15-17, where attendees will be able to adopt shelter animals at a reduced fee.
