Mark wrote:
<<Many prosecuting attorneys (city & county types) have decided that the release of animals on property other than another meets the definition of "abandonment" under the code and could prosecute for it.>>
I hate to beat the subject to death, but I assume this means without landowner permission? If cats are sterilized, vaccinated, have shelters, and the business owner or homeowner or park manager gives permission, I assume this is not abandonment? This is how we manage things. We have yet to find a landowner, or at least an adjacent landowner, who won't give permission for the cats to stay. Usually they are feeding the cats themselves, anyway, and feel bad for them. If one landowner doesn't like the cats living under his porch, we just fix his porch so the cats can't go under there and find someone nearby instead, and install shelters. Usually there's more than one landowner concerned about the cats, anyway.
What is the legal difference if I neuter unpettable feral cats at a lumber yard in the city, and they know I'm there, and I neuter barn cats that wander between farms in the country, for a farmer? Fish and Game in some states seems to think the first is abandonment, and the second is just plain good livestock management.
Thank goodness the Farm Bureau spoke up at the Pennsylvania Game Commission public meeting to point out they hoped PGC wasn't thinking of telling them they can't fix their barn cats!
So I guess my question is: wouldn't TNR with landowner permission be perfectly legal if the cats are fed, sheltered, and receive veterinary care and vaccinations? (in the absence of pet number limits or cat leash laws).
(for the record, if the landowner gives permission but doesn't want to accept ownership, I consider myself the legal owner, and I tell them that. So far, no problem, although I'm sure if the owner wanted to sell, I'd have to convince the next owner, or move my cats).
Thanks very much for your responses to this flurry of questions you are getting.
Susan
<<Many prosecuting attorneys (city & county types) have decided that the release of animals on property other than another meets the definition of "abandonment" under the code and could prosecute for it.>>
I hate to beat the subject to death, but I assume this means without landowner permission? If cats are sterilized, vaccinated, have shelters, and the business owner or homeowner or park manager gives permission, I assume this is not abandonment? This is how we manage things. We have yet to find a landowner, or at least an adjacent landowner, who won't give permission for the cats to stay. Usually they are feeding the cats themselves, anyway, and feel bad for them. If one landowner doesn't like the cats living under his porch, we just fix his porch so the cats can't go under there and find someone nearby instead, and install shelters. Usually there's more than one landowner concerned about the cats, anyway.
What is the legal difference if I neuter unpettable feral cats at a lumber yard in the city, and they know I'm there, and I neuter barn cats that wander between farms in the country, for a farmer? Fish and Game in some states seems to think the first is abandonment, and the second is just plain good livestock management.
Thank goodness the Farm Bureau spoke up at the Pennsylvania Game Commission public meeting to point out they hoped PGC wasn't thinking of telling them they can't fix their barn cats!
So I guess my question is: wouldn't TNR with landowner permission be perfectly legal if the cats are fed, sheltered, and receive veterinary care and vaccinations? (in the absence of pet number limits or cat leash laws).
(for the record, if the landowner gives permission but doesn't want to accept ownership, I consider myself the legal owner, and I tell them that. So far, no problem, although I'm sure if the owner wanted to sell, I'd have to convince the next owner, or move my cats).
Thanks very much for your responses to this flurry of questions you are getting.
Susan