The judges order merely precluded LAAS from participating in TNR by act or propaganda. It precluded them from releasing ferals of individuals or feral non-profits. It forbade them from not loaning out tra, or by rogue members ps. It forbade them from not accepting cats in traps.
The judge's order did not apply to private individual's TNR in any way.
However, it appears that the department has decided to go anti-private TNR by threatening colony managers with fines and jail if they feed feral cats--that is, unless the person lives on Leadwell street, where the owner beat the city in a lawsuit in the past.
However, Officer DeMascias cites M.C. 53.07.5, banning the feeding of non domesticated mammilian predators, and applies it in selective cases to people feeding feral cat colonies.
THAT IS NOT THE INTENT OF THAT LAW. THE INTENT WAS TO STOP THE DELIBERATE FEEDING OF WILDLIFE. YES, WILDLIFE MIGHT EAT SOME FOOD FERALS DON'T EAT, BUT THAT WAS NOT THE INTENT OF THE COLONY MANAGERS. THEIR INTENT WAS TO FEED DOMESTIC IF NOT DOMESTICATED CATS.
Few seem to grasp that the misapplication of this law by either LAAS offical policy, or the selective misapplication by rogue officers of LAAS or ACTF means the END OF TNR in Los Angeles. This is a big deal. Doesn't anyone see this but me?
Feral cats are NOT non-domesticated mammalian predators.
ReplyDeleteNon-domesticated mammalian predators means wildlife which does not include feral cats. Feral cats are domestic cats that are not socialized.
Ed is right. The judge's ruling does not apply to private TNR.
The whole argument for feral cats is that they're wild animals. It's the same as feeding pigeons. Pigeons are not unsocialized parrots, they're wildlife. Make up your mind people, the cat is either wild or it's abandoned personal property. If it's wild it's a predatory mammal. If it's a domestic cat that isn't socialized, but it needs to be picked up and impounded.
ReplyDeleteWhat in the world does your sentence, "The whole argument for feral cats is that they are wild animals." AND, "the cat is either wild or domestic property."
ReplyDeleteWhat is your legal background, reading Lil Abner?
The housecat, felis catus domesticus is a felid subspecies. It is not like bob cats or other wildlife cats.
Just because a cat is not domesticted and lives on the street without an owner does not make it wildlife, otherwise, homeless people living on the streets also would be wildlife. Lack of socialization and an owner does not make a species wildlife.
Also, the law SOME ACO at LAAS have been using to stop colony manager, namely LA M.C. 53.07.5 specifically names the wildlife that canot be fed: coyotes, racoons, oppossum and skunks. It does not name feral cats.
The intent of the law was to stop people from feeding coyotes or species that coyotes feed on, to prevent frequent intrusions of coyotes in built up areas.
Officer DeMascias and other ACOs have misappropriated the use of that law to a use not within the range of the intent of that law. They are not saying feral cats are wildlife, but that the proscribed wildlife MIGHT eat some of the food left for feral cats. Again, this is not the intent of that law, this is what I see as Mascias' own personal, out of policy, malicious intent, used to harass homeowners who feed ferals or feral cat managers.
This has to be stopped.