Cat advocates in Winter Park, Florida are outraged that City Commissioners adopted a temporary ordinance to prohibit the feeding of community cats in Mead Botanical Garden. Some of the cats are sterilized and some are not. Residents of Winter Park, like In Defense of Animals supporter Trudy McNair, are shocked and horrified by the ordinance, which fines anyone caught feeding the cats. We can’t let these cats starve to death!

In an eloquent letter to the editor of the local paper, McNair questions why a wealthy city like Winter Park can’t find a better solution to the cat dumping problem than to punish the people who are feeding the cats from the kindness of their own hearts. She argues, “With this policy, it is kindness and compassion that are being punished and cruelty is being rewarded.”

Commissioner Peter Weldon claims he’s “sympathetic to those who are sympathetic to the cats,” but how can he really feel this way, when he knows this ordinance keeps concerned caregivers chronically sleepless, worried and heartbroken?  Does he have any sympathy for the cats themselves? Weldon says we should not “indulge feral cats anywhere in Winter Park” and advocates for their removal so we know he has no sympathy for the cats or their caregivers.

With mounting evidence that Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) programs, which sterilize free-roaming cats and return them to their colonies, can eliminate feral cat populations over time, why is the city of Winter Park trying to starve resident cats to death? Parks and Recreation Director John Holland started a TNR program at Mead Garden, but won’t complete it. The TNR representative has advocated to continue the program, rather that stop it mid-swing. Can’t Winter Park exercise some patience and compassion?

With just a bit of tolerance and patience, Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) will effectively and humanely reduce the Mead Garden cat colony. Let’s support local activists like McNair, who is working to save the cats and find a compassionate resolution.

If you are being persecuted for helping animals, please call our Animal Activist Mentor Line for support at 1(800) 705-0425 or email us at mentor@idausa.org.

You can read activist Trudy McNair’s great letter to the editor here, and read this article to understand why Trudy took action.

Read this information on how and why Trap-Neuter-Return works here.

Click here to take action.