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WHEELING - It was standing room only during Tuesday night’s meeting of Wheeling City Council where many in attendance came to speak out against a proposed ordinance that would prohibit citizens from feeding feral cats.
However, city leaders heard opposition to the legislation since the first reading of the ordinance on March 20. Even before the scheduled public hearing began at the start of Tuesday night’s meeting, Councilman Ben Seidler announced that he planned to move to table the legislation in favor of a different approach focused on spaying and neutering stray cats.
"I want to thank everybody who wrote to me and wrote to council, and educated me on some things that I wasn’t aware of," Seidler said, stressing that the ordinance was proposed at the advice of the Ohio County Health Department and Prosecutor’s Office. "What we were trying to address is a huge litter problem that is in our neighborhoods."
Seidler apologized for not speaking with more people in the community who are more well versed on this topic before moving forward with the legislation, describing the feeding ban as a "short sighted" approach to addressing the problem. Seidler said he would support a more productive way to address the issue - such as a redesigned amendment that works towards providing funding for a trap, neuter and release program.
"It was never our intent to stop somebody from doing this on private property anyway," he said. "It was never my intent to put any animals in harm, obviously."
Despite the caveat that the legislation would not be moving forward Tuesday night, several citizens who signed up to speak on the matter still took the opportunity to address council. Many noted that feeding stray cats does not attract vermin like rats, indicating the cats actually control rodent populations. Others noted that the proposed fine for those found to be in violation of the code amendment was higher than fines for what many would deem more serious crimes.