Essex/Windsor

County/City Cats:
Complaints, Concerns, Choices

There is not an area within Windsor/Essex that does not have colonies of feral or stray cats. Every municipal council and administration has had to deal with difficult and sometimes heartbreaking calls from residents “to do something”.

Although there are still many residents who, in traditional thinking, accept the presence of outside cats in both rural and urban areas as part of normal ecology, there are other segments of our community that do not. They range from the compassionate people who see these animals as suffering and in need of assistance to the intolerant who see them as nuisance “varmints”.

It is the latter who tend to be most vociferous and demanding. However, in reality, they are in the minority (11%) as opposed to a much more timid majority (83%) who wish to see these animals protected.

The document below is intended to provide a broad overview of the situation and its causes, to review the effectiveness of both common and innovative strategies and to propose a Best Practices Solution for Windsor/Essex.

 

Discussion Paper and Proposal