Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Pet Policy for Cats in Co housing community

[Beverly Jones Redekop (beverly.jones.redekop]

​Many people think it's a grand idea to create policies restricting outside
cats, but they don't think through the whole situation.  Just like how
exterminating wolves in what became Yellowstone park seems to have favoured
elk, causing problems for willow, beaver, and waterways​, there are
problems with banning outdoor cats.  Outdoor cats compensate for many
human, sloppy, rat-friendly practices: humans attract rats with imperfect
composting, with unharvested fruit, with the feces of their pet dogs, and
with bird feeders.  Outdoor cats usually take care of the resulting rats
without too much notice (or credit or appreciation ;-)

If you do wish to limit outside cats, your policy at a very minimum should
restrict BOTH outdoor cats and birdfeeders.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

          Beverly Jones Redekop

    beverly.jones.redekop [at] gmail.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On Fri, Apr 24, 2015 at 6:26 AM, Sharon Villines <sharon [at] 
sharonvillines.com>
wrote:

>
>
> > On Apr 24, 2015, at 8:50 AM, Coleen O'Connell <oconnellcoleen [at] 
> > gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > If you lived in a regular neighborhood
> > you would have zero control.
>
> Actually not. It depends on whether you are rural or urban. Outdoor cats
> are illegal in Washington DC. The cats could be reported, or caught and
> turned in to animal control.
>
> The reason we finally got a pet policy at all is that we consulted Animal
> Control on the interpretation of the law on dogs. Unless they are in a
> fenced yard that belongs to a privately owned house, dogs have to be "under
> the control of the owner." "Under control" means the dog is on a leash or
> close enough for the owner to grab them. A child under 14 (?) doesn't
> qualify as a person who can control a dog. To walk a dog on a leash, they
> are supposed to have an adult present.
>
> A condo doesn't qualify as private home. If we had allowed dogs to be free
> roaming on our property, we would have been liable as a community for their
> actions. Since a number of our members had been subject to or had close
> friends subject to dog bites (one young child being bitten in the face
> leaving permanent scars), no one was willing to take that risk.
>
> The control of cats is not so strict as dogs in DC but it could be
> enforced. Cats are more of an irritant.
>
> Sharon
> ----
> Sharon Villines
> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
> http://www.takomavillage.org
>
>
>
>
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