$255 fine issued to LaSalle residents for feeding stray cats

Two LaSalle residents are facing a $255 fine for feeding stray cats.

LaSalle passed a bylaw saying that you can’t feed cats, except as part of a “trap, neuter or spay, and manage program approved by the supervisor.”

The residents contacted the Windsor/Essex County Humane Society for help. The shelter says the Trap Neuter Release (TNR) programs save cats’ lives.

“We confirmed for the town that these are cats who were TNR'd under our stray cat intake agreement with LaSalle. We also confirmed that they are community cats who are microchipped to the WECHS as free-roaming cats," said a post from the humane society.

Humane society executive director Melanie Coulter tells CTV News, “the ticket was upheld after they challenged it and that $255 was quite a hardship for them and also a concern because they're just trying to help these cats.”

The humane society is now asking the community for help. The shelter says residents can contact the Town of LaSalle, donate to help cover the cost of the ticket and be a responsible community cat caregiver.

“We're asking the town to reconsider this bylaw. The bylaw was passed, there wasn't a lot of public debate on it and I think this is something that there are other options,” said Coulter.

Coulter says these cats were community cats, so they don't belong to anybody.

“They have a microchip that registers to the Humane Society as a free roaming cat. So these are not their cats. They're just doing the right thing by trying to help them out,” Coulter said.

Coulter said LaSalle isn’t the only municipality with this kind of bylaw.

“Windsor actually also passed a bylaw against feeding cats unless it's part of an approved program, and that's a concern as well and something that we would like to speak to Windsor about further,” she said. “But this is a concern right now because this ticket has been issued and so we're asking people to contact their LaSalle councillors and the LaSalle mayor to advocate to change this bylaw and make it more humane.”

Response from LaSalle mayor

LaSalle mayor Crystal Meloche tells CTV News the approach the humane society was taking to address the matter was "disappointing."

“Municipalities put bylaws in place that are going to protect all the residents as best as we possibly can,” said Meloche. “The route the Humane Society is currently taking is actually a little bit disappointing.”

Meloche said they went a different route and unfortunately are trying to use social media to intimidate us,”

“If they don't agree with the bylaw that we have in place, people do this all the time, they go and get a petition and they come out to council meetings and they ask to speak on an item on the agenda and ask us to look at our bylaws,” she added.

Meloche said she believed the current animal bylaw in place does need a review, but remained adamant that there are proper ways to have that discussion.

“I think it could have been a great open conversation to hear both sides of the story instead, we're just being inundated by emails people upset with us without hearing the whole story or fully knowing the situation on what happened and the thing with our job is we need to look at both sides. We need to look at the people who are fined, but the people who are making the complaint as well,” said Meloche.

Meloche said this bylaw has been around for a while.

“It's not a new bylaw and this bylaw was created years ago to deal with situations that municipalities face when you feed wild animals. When you put out food for wild animals, it's not just going to attract cats,” she said. “You're gonna attract rodents, you're going to attract raccoons and in the worst case scenario, and something we don't want, is we don't want to be attracting coyotes to our residential neighborhoods and we've dealt with that in the Town of LaSalle.”

Meloche said they've had residents complain, and that's one of the things they always advise their residents - is don't leave food out.

“Make sure you clean up after your pets because those are things that attract coyotes,” she said. “So, these bylaws are created to protect everyone and as I said, I’m an animal lover. I hate seeing a stray cat, but we have to make sure that our bylaws protects everyone.”