Village will help fund neutering for strays
“We know we have a population of cats that don’t belong to anyone.”
With those words, Mayor Joe D’Onofrio recently asked the Village Board to consider using $1000 from the village budget to enter a contract with TARA (The Animal Rights Alliance) to help pay for the spaying and neutering of stray cats.
The board was in agreement, and this week, after the mayor made sure the funds were available, the board formally approved his signing a contract with TARA. The way it works is that if residents catch a stray cat and take it to be neutered via TARA, the resident will pay $25 and the village will pay $25.
At that rate, the $1000 the village will put forth would help to pay to neuter up to 40 cats, which could significantly cut the reproduction rate of stray cats in the village.
The mayor said he brought the idea to the board after residents approached him, seeing an increased number of stray cats in the community since the retirement of local veterinarian Dr. Nancy Beeman in 2019 and the subsequent disbanding of the Four Paws Humane Society. “They’ve even been talking about having some kind of fund raiser to help pay the residents’ portion of the fee,” the mayor said. “I will work with them on that.”
The topic also came up at a recent Town Board meeting. Supervisor Bob Livsey said he didn’t believe there were stray cat problems in Fort Montgomery like there are in Highland Falls. The board took no action.
