A Minneapolis City Council committee gave approval to an ordinance (see link below*) allowing people to maintain communities of feral cats, with a vote by the whole council (which is normally a formality) this Friday 9/20. The members were swayed by a dedicated minority who, among other things, claim that allowing caretaking of these colonies -- including providing food and shelter and catch-neuter-release programs -- would actually be beneficial for wildlife. That of course is in the face of the scientific consensus that these are a disaster for birds and other native wildlife, in particular the report earlier this year from the USFWS and the Smithsonian Research Institute [ <http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v4/n1/full/ncomms2380.html> http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v4/n1/full/ncomms2380.html] estimating annual deaths in the billions of birds and tens of billions of mammals.
It is important that council members hear from people who care about birds, even those outside Minneapolis, as this will become a model for other cities. You can see their phone numbers and email addresses at this site: http://www.mpls.dfl.org/elected-officials. This is an election year and they need to realize that a small, vocal group of extremists does not represent the whole electorate. (Let me know if you want addresses of their opponents in the election also.) I'm hoping there is a chance to get them to at least send the bill back to get wider input and to remove the most damaging provisions. * Here is the full wording: http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups/public/@clerk/documents/webcontent/w cms1p-112302.pdf Stephen Greenfield Minneapolis tapac...@q.com <mailto:tapacul...@gmail.com> tapacul...@gmail.com ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
