The answer: absolutely not! If you have expendable income to feed pets, save it for the shelters and rescue organizations. Not only is it unsafe and unhealthy to feed feral cats, it actually may be against the law.
Katherine Varjian has been feeding feral cats, or felines that are not under her ownership, in her Beverly Hills neighborhood for the past 12 years. The Beverly Hills Municipal Court will now decide whether or not her actions are within the confines of the law.
Varjian was feeding between 20 and 30 cats daily in the alley behind the 100-200 blocks of Palm, Maple and Oakhurst Drives. She was issued citations twice for this behavior – first in January of this year, then again in February. The violation is considered a misdemeanor by the City and will be heard by Beverly Hills criminal court. The charge carries with it a possible six months of jail time and a $1,000 fine.
The problem lies in a deleted code (5-2-104, subdivision B and C).
In an effort to streamline practices when handling animal control, the City retained the City of Los Angeles’ Animal Services Department for certain animal care and control services, consequently adopting their ordinances. As such, part of the Beverly Hills Municipal Code was inadvertently removed, relating to feeding stray and feral animals out of concern for endangering the health, safety, and welfare of citizens.
It is under this omitted code that Varjian has been charged.
Although Katherine Varjian has taken what is argued as excellent care of these cats – routinely spaying, neutering and adopting out kittens through various local organizations – her actions have also created a nuisance in the neighborhood, and local residents have complained that her actions have brought coyotes and roaches to the area. Residents secured a petition asking her to stop feeding feral cats.
This issue is now in the hands of the court, which will decide whether or not to proceed with charges against Katherine Varjian.
For more info: http://67.59.172.92/article/More_Local_News/More_Local_News/65YearOld_Woman_Faces_Jail_Time_For_Feeding_Cats/64797
Comments
Sharon Harleigh does NOT know one thing about what she is talking about. The cats are NOT simply being fed. That's all people see. These cats have been trapped, neutered and spayed, disease-testing, vaccinated, and returned to the site. Tame cats are adopted to homes. This is TIME and MONEY out of a good citizen's pockets to pick up the mess left by irresponsible and ignorant people like Ms. Harleigh. Feeding is only maintaining the colony and prevents other unneutered cats from moving in!! Nature hates a vacuum, and new ferals would move in because there are still irresponsible cat dumpers in the world. Why don't you target the people who do not neuter and spay and dump these animals outside forming feral colonies, Mr. Harleigh?! No, go ahead and attack the good citizen for trying to make the problem livable. Now, go and enjoy your vacations, because people like Ms. Varjian don't get one because she's cleaning up the mess from ignorant people like yourself.
What a shame that people are cited for doing what is humane. Many times TNR programs, with a human guardian to feed the feral colonies is the only way for these poor cats to survive.
Certainly the solution isn't to turn them over to shelters where they will be euthanized.
TNR is in no way a humane practice. This woman should be cited for creating a public nusance as well as animal cruelty. If she insists on saving every cat then she should take on the additional responsibility without infringing on the the rights of the neighbors and enclose her cats on private property. Cats are domeatic companion animals not wildlife. Just because ignorant people dump and abandon them, and I realize it is not the fault of the cats, does not mean that we should allow them to live outdoors to kill our native creatures and spread disease. Trap and remove but never trap and reabandon these poor cats. Euthanasia is a much better outcome for these cats than languishing in a sub-standard colony exposed to the elements, parasites, disease, vehicles and further abuse by humans.
REDBUD -- This world was not just meant for humans like yourself, thankfully. It was meant for cats and other creatures. First, people complain about the rats they think are lured by left-over cat food. THEN, they accuse the cats of killing wildlife when the cats kill the rats. These cats were brought over from Africa, and deserve to be cared for -- not killed. TNR IS HUMANE because the caregiver takes these cats to the vet when they need to go. LISTEN: These cats do NOT spread disease since they are vaccinated and taken to the vet if they should appear not well for whatever reason. Your method is LAZINESS because you don't have it in you to commit to caring for a colony. So don't knock TNR when you haven't even bothered to try it.
Oh and hey, Rosebud -- Do you know how much of tax payer money it costs to keep dragging feral and stray cats to the pound for killing? Because of laziness, taxpayers get a wapping BILL for these things. Cat colony caretakers save taxpayers many thousands of dollars a year. It's obvious you don't care about cats, so maybe you care about your money?
Kathleen Varijan should be applauded, not cited, for her hard work, the money out of her pocket and the care she gives to these cats. I feed two colonies myself. I have spayed and vaccinated them all and it took a long time. Cats are capable of up to 3 litters a year X 4/5 kittens. Do the math. Imagine how many there would be if she had not spayed them. And, let us not forget the irresponsible owners who decide they are going to move, or decide they no longer want a pet and dump them. Now THAT is lazy, and irresponsible. You should all be thankful for her work. The minute you get rid of the kitties, you will have your rats back. Find someone worthy of placing in your jails. I am sure you have much worse offenders then Ms Varijan. I am also sure you have more pressing issues in your area, like real crime. Take it there. Leave her alone.
Anyone who says you should not feed feral cats has never seen the benefit of having a few fixed cats around. I know of a neighborhood who got rid of their fixed ferals and guess what, the neighborhood was over run with rats and mice. Feral cats serve a purpose -- they keep down rodents. I also know how valuable they are around barns, feed stores, horse stalls, etc.
Another reason we should feed and fix them is it's us human's who caused feral cats to be there in the first place by not fixing our domestic cats or abandoning our pet cats. It's inhumane to let an animal suffer and die when we caused the problem in the first place. It also protects birds by feeding them and fixing them. A fed cat without kittens to feed is much less likely to try to catch a bird for dinner.
You offer no basis for your claim that feeding feral cats is unsafe or unhealthy. Your sole grounds for declaring no one should care for them is the fact that Ms. Varjian got arrested, which is more about Beverly Hills politics, and a few self-entitled neighbors, than practicality or morality. Yes she was arrested. So were Martin Luther King and Gandhi. People doing the right thing sometimes get arrested. Why would any self-described animal lover condemn someone for caring for the least-protected of them?
You also neglect the fact that LA Animal Services, which does animal control for Beverly Hills, gives classes in TNR, which is City policy, while its Animal Cruelty Task Force arrests people for “having too many cats,” a violation; a ticketing offense, not an arresting offense. That’s how they spend our taxes, rather than arresting dogfighters, cockfighters, people who hurt and kill animals, etc. Animal lovers should care about ALL animals, not just the lucky ones who have homes.
And the code wasn't inadvertently removed. The contract say LAAS will provide animal control under L.A.'s laws. Beverly Hills can't outsource their animal control and expect LAAS to enforce different laws there than in the rest of L.A.
I'm sure there are a few Beverly Hills residents who would feel entitled to such special treatment. But hopefully far more see no point and no humanity in denying cats who have hard enough lives a meal.
How ignorant is THAT statment "it is unsafe to feed them?" Hello! if feral they run so how dose that pose a threat to anyone? But it is unheathly to NOT feed them. Why would you want sick homeless animals instead of heathly fixed ones? Beverly Hills has rats so therfor cats are a service to them. Regardless of ignorant hateful laws it comes down to ethics & compassion which this editor obviously lacks! This woman has taken in tons of kittens off the streets & has fixed many adults on her own dime and she is viewed as a criminal. No wonder this country is going down the toilet!!!
Ohh & I forgot to mention why would you give your money to a shelter who only turns around & kills the animal after a few days especially the ferals. I do agree to give to rescues but I disagree about the shelters. See Shelter indicates to me a safe haven, well if it were a safe place for animals they would not be killing them.
Kate, my reason for saying it is unsafe and unhealthy to feed feral cats is from personal experience - watching a few good hearted neighbors (not in BH, but from an entirely separate incident) attempting to feed and trap feral cats, and getting injured in the process, has caused me to caution people who are not trained or equipped to handle feral cats simply not to do it! I am not discouraging those who are knowledgeable, who have received training, and who understand what feral cat colonies are like, to take action in helping the situation. However, the keep is to HELP the situation, and not to have a random unskilled citizen say "Here, kitty kitty" and try to feed and pet without understanding the very specific needs of feral animals. I am not advocating or supporting the actions of law enforcement in this case - I am, however, supporting the use of common sense, good training/knowledge of the issue, and proper assessment of the NEEDS of feral cats.. not random folks who lay out
food without understanding the trap-and-fix realities of the feral colony. I hate to hear stories of small children who want to feed the local feral cats and "pet the kitty" and end up injured. An educational campaign would be a good idea rather than charging this individual. But, I'm merely reporting the story. :)
Ms. Varjian is in her 60s and practices TNR as well as feeding. It's unfair to use her as an example of why caring for feral cats is wrong if what you’re talking about is letting kids pet what are essentially wild cats, although all ferals I know would fly a mile before they'd let a kid near them.
I believe LA City and County shelters kill all ferals as unadoptable. The rescue I volunteer at has taken ferals, but I’m not sure how really happy we can ever make them. So the options are feed them (and TNR them) or kill them. LA policy is TNR and if LA’s doing Beverly Hills’ animal control then contractually they need to abide by our laws.
The other objection is ferals kill birds, although one has to wonder how high people think cats can jump. Feeding them lessens the chance they’ll kill birds. But it’s a Catch-22 mostly because some people just hate the cats and object to anyone treating them humanely. Fine, but they shouldn’t use our Animal Services Dept to enforce their hate.
I have read more criticism of the neighbors in this situation than for the lady who has been cited for the third time. Let's examine the situation responsibly, shall we?
The neighbors resent unwanted pet animals being attracted to their property, for whatever reason. Perhaps they are in fear of coyotes being attracted. I have heard that is a possibility in California. Perhaps they have a roach phobia, many people do. Maybe they love the birds and other fauna cats kill for the sport of it, or perhaps they simply don't like cats!
Whatever their reasoning is, they own or lease the property and their objections should be respected! I have owned my home for over twenty years, for half of that time a neighbor has maintained a feral cat feeding station. I tried to reason with him, he cursed at me.
I plowed my gardens and flower beds under, and took down my bird nests and feeders. I dismantled the grand kids sand box.
My hobby now is trapping cats and taking them to the Animal Control.
Phyllis Elijah says:
"I know of a neighborhood who got rid of their fixed ferals and guess what, the neighborhood was over run with rats and mice."
OH, MY DOG! THE RODENTS ARE COMING! My home had a cow pasture behind it when I moved here, now it's a subdivision. I've never had to import cats to keep rodents down. I buy warfarin blocks every six months or so. Now, here's a scientific study about cats and rodents.
Dr. Cole Hawkins conducted a study of two grassland parks in the East Bay Regional Park District in California--one with no cats and one where over 20 cats were being fed daily. -----------
In addition, over 85 percent of the native deer and harvest mice trapped were in the park without cats, whereas over 75 percent of the house mice (an exotic pest) trapped were in the park with cats.
Bird Advocate,
If Beverly Hills wants LA to do their animal control they're contractually bound to abide by LA animal law - period.
Also you're mistaken to characterize feral cats as pet cats, they are not and no well-informed "responsible" person would call them that.
Ms. Varjian is not feeding or attracting cats to anyone's private property, she is feeding homeless cats in an alley.
Also, your contention that feral cats pose a particular hazard to birds has been debated by experts. As I asked before, exactly how high do you think cats can jump? I'd bet the hawks that DO live in West LA pose a greater threat. Should we kill them?
And most people would think feral cats a more environmentally responsible choice for rodent control than blocks of warfarin, a poison that could be consumed by a pet or a child.
I'm sorry you hate cats so much you would deliberately trap them to have them killed. Cats are beautiful creatures. You're missing out on some great companionship.
People are so mean I also feed cats and some stupid neighbors complaining also. I always clean up after myself and always wait for them to finish eating than I just take cans of tuna and plates in the bag and garbage. Same thing people do when they walk their dog. It does it's business you clean up after the dog. I don't see what the problem is. I am a college student and I don't have a job but whatever money I have left I buy lots tuna for the cats, I just can't watch them being hungry. People always complain about this that. I wish it was the biggest problem of our life that someone feeds the cat and you don't like it.
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!