Some Boissevain residents not amewsed with cats

BOISSEVAIN — An exceptionally high number of complaints about roaming cats has prompted the Boissevain animal control officer to issue a warning to the public that he will deploy live traps this month.

Complaints of cats running around neighbourhoods have come in heavy this year, Craig Barwick, the animal control officer in Boissevain, posted on social media last week. In an interview with the Sun, Barwick said that the main complaint he hears is that cats are pooping in people’s gardens and running through properties.

“(I posted) just to let people know that I was going to start trapping cats again,” he said. “To give the cat owners a little bit of a warning.”

The spring enforcement has become an annual event in Boissevain, he said. He believes that cat owners become lax about local bylaws because he does not trap in the winter, and when spring rolls around the complaints roll in with residents looking for action.

“They’ve been sending the complaints in for a couple of months, and I tell them I have to wait, because we’re not going to trap in the winter when it’s cold,” Barwick said. “I talked to the town after it started to warm up here, and we think the snowstorms and everything are done, (I decided) that we would start putting some traps out again, and try to clear up the problem again.”

He said he has three traps, and will buy more if he needs to.

Barwick’s social media post led to discussion in the community with over 70 comments online, with several affected residents supporting the trapping of cats, and others complaining about treatment of animals, or saying that it’s no big deal.

“The whole front of my house stinks like cat (urine),” wrote Cassidy McRuer in the discussion. “They use my front flower bed as a litter bed. It’s so bad I can even smell it in my home when it’s melting/raining. Something definitely needs to be done about the cat problem!”

“If the people were responsible pet owners, the cats would be kept in their own yard,” wrote Linda Kilmury-Mannix. “If I wanted a cat to poop and pee in my yard, I would have my own.”

Rhonda Kleebaum, a Boissevain resident, raised concerns about animal welfare. She questioned what will happen to cats because Boissevain does not have a facility to hold trapped cats for the three days as set out in the municipality’s animal control bylaw.

“No one is saying that the bylaws shouldn’t be enforced,” she wrote. “Some of us just want to know what is going to happen to these living, breathing creatures.”

Kleebaum argued that without a holding facility, it’s difficult to follow up on traps and take proper care of animals and reunite them with their owners.

Barwick told the Sun that he personally turns traps around in a single day to address this issue. He goes door to door asking around and eventually delivering trapped cats to their owners — first giving the owner a warning, then a fine of $50, then a fine of $100, and finally a warning that he can remove the animal, however he said he does not want it to get to that point.

“I try my hardest to find out whose cat it is, and I take it back to them. And you know, you give them a little talking to.”

The spring time each year is a cycle to re-enforce the bylaw and get residents back in line, he said.

“People start behaving again. It’s not the cats, it’s the people.”

A senior Boissevain woman walking her dog on Johnson Street last week, who declined to give her name, said roaming cats is part of living in a small town. She has found litter in her garden, and does not own a cat, but believes roaming cats are just part of small town living.

“It’s not a big thing, but some people make it a big thing,” she said. “Cats are out wandering at this time of year. That’s what they do, that’s nature’s way.”

While she thinks it’s OK to let cats roam, she said that people are entitled to ask for a fix when it creates issues.

“People have a right to complain. If they don’t want cats in their yard, they have the right to complain,” she said.

Ernie Facey, a Boissevian resident at the other end of town, said he has formed a 10-year relationship with a cat that hangs around his trailer. He leaves water out for the cat in the summers when it gets hot, he said.

“He spends a lot of time around these two trailers here,” he said of the cat, which appeared while he was speaking, rounding the corner and stepping carefully over golf clubs on his deck, looking plump. “And he’s not suffering as far as catching food.”

The cat takes care of some problems for him, he said. For instance, he noted that he has only ever found a single mouse in his trailer once, since living there more than 10 years.

“That’s one good thing about them. They’ll keep the mice population down.”

He noted that a different cat in the neighbourhood is a nuisance.

“If you leave the garbage out early, there’s a good chance the cat may go into it,” he said. “My neighbour over there complains about it all the time. It goes up on her deck and poops in her yard.”

Facey said he belives the status quo is working fine.

Barwick said he expects the cat problem will get under control with the warning and trapping.

“This will slow down now, in a month or a couple of weeks, it’ll slow down. And people become responsible again, and they’ll try and keep their cat in or they’ll remind the kids keep the cat in,” Barwick said.

The spring time also gives him a time to take care of other cat issues, he said. Feral cats also roam around in the area, and the springtime is a period to relocate those cats to a farm where he has an agreement with landowners who want cats on the property, he said.

“I will catch up to them again, and I’ll get the numbers down on them and get them out in the country,” Barwick said. “So it will slow down. And that’s the only reason why I put it out, was to try and give them a warning … But some other people, they rip it apart and they just make a big deal out of it.”

» cmcdowell@brandonsun.com