Grandmother arrested for feeding homeless cats!

Please tell me it aint so! I live in Nacogdoches but I'm getting email about the craziest city ordinance I have ever heard of. Is it really against the law to feed a stray cat in Grand Saline? I heard that the mayor pushed through a city ordinance that not only forbids the feeding of homeless cats, but also requires the city animal control people to trap them and take them to the shelter to be killed. I also heard that a grandmother was arrested in front of her grandchildren for feeding the homeless cats. If this is true then I have to say that your mayor must be about the dumbest mayor in TX. Are you some kind of anti-cat sociopath? You must walk around foaming at the mouth and chanting, "kill all the cats, kill all the cats...." Get a life, Mr. Mayor! If what I heard is not true then, sorry, Mr. Mayor. Never mind.

I read about the grandmother being arrested for taking care of and helping to control the feral cat population. She is doing a wonderful service for the community and she's arrested? Is the community going along with this? There should be an outcry for the removal of that insane mayor, and there should be an approval for the grandmother to continue feeding the cats.

The mayor's actions will cause more problems with the cat population. The grandmother's actions were helping to control it. This should be a no-brainer.

Alley Cat Allies, a national organization dedicated to helping feral and homeless cats, has requested that we send a letter such as the following to the mayor of Grand Saline. For more information, please go to: www.alleycat.org . Thanks for your help.

Dear Mayor Tolar:

I am appalled to learn of the arrest of a caregiver of outdoor cat in the city of Grand Saline. Caroline, a resident of Grand Saline, was arrested on Monday, March 13, 2006 for feeding hungry outdoor cats. Banning the feeding of cats will not solve your outdoor cat issues and may actually exacerbate them.

Feeding bans are counterproductive and tend to worsen feral cat nuisance behavior, increasing complaints from citizens. Often, cats suddenly cut off from human feeding will scavenge from garbage, or roam further in search of food. Even subsisting on a meager diet, without the benefit of human feeding, cats can reproduce at alarming rates. Both trap-and-kill and trap-and remove schemes - which must be done on an ongoing basis - do not reduce feral cat populations and are costly to communities. Other cats move in to take advantage of the newly available resources and they breed prolifically, quickly forming other colonies. The only answer is to employ a Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program where caregivers, rescue groups, animal control, and government officials can work together to address the issues with outdoor cats and reduce their populations.



Before the city implemented and enforced these ineffective and draconian laws, Caroline was able to sterilize and eartip every cat in her colony. Now, however, she is left with only one eartipped cat (all the others were trapped and removed) and a few unsterilized newcomers. Caroline sterilized and fed all of the cats with her own money and cannot sterilize any new cats until she is able to feed again regularly.



Alley Cat Allies, the nation's experts in humanely managing outdoor cats, has written a letter to you and your city council members about humane alternatives to trapping and killing cats but has still heard no reply. I ask that you contact Alley Cat Allies as soon as possible so that they may help Grand Saline create a Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program for the city's cats. Furthermore, I ask that you place an immediate moratorium on all trap-and-kill activities conducted by your city and suspend enforcement of the newly-created outdoor animal feeding ban.



I hope that you will contact Alley Cat Allies as soon as possible at 240-482-1980 x330 and seek their help in creating a humane, effective solution.

Sincerely,

Not only can we not feed feral cats, but there is a cat who has been living at the Hospital where I work and we are not allowed to feed him. He is tame and people feed him all the time, and not just the Hospital employees. The employees have been ordered not to feed the cat. His name is lonesome, they did not order us not to care for him in other ways.
I have donated flee drops and worm pills and so have some of the Nurses and some of the other employees. We have cared for him (me for almost 1 year) and others before me for years before I even came around. He has become dependent on us for food, now we can't feed him. He is tame, he comes to me and gives me kisses. He is a Manx with the 5 toes and the stub tail and the hips higher than the front limbs. I think Grand Saline Texas Mayor sucks and I am sending the letter to be sure he knows that we are watching him. I just feel that if the Police have nothing better to do than look to see who is feeding cats when, rape, drugs, robbery and suicides abound in this town then some one needs to investigate this town and it's Mayor, Terry Toler who voted for him anyway? I bet I make sure to vote him out in favor of an animal friendly Mayor.
You know they let us feed the rabies carrying squirles, and the rats invade our homes and eat at will, People are allowed to feed the birds, why not cats???? We need the tnr plan here....... Pam Schmitz (Sorry to live in Grand Saline, Texas

I am not from Mineola Texas, I am from Dallas Texas and happen to be stuck living in the cat and black prejudice Town of Grand Saline, Texas.

Get rid of this COWARDLY, CARELESS, HEARTLESS MAYOR TERRY TOLAR!!!

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do
nothing." -Edmund Burke

Grand saline is my home town and my family is very good friends with the mayor (mr. Tolar)
now i havent been back there for about 3 years but there is a (cat lady) who ppls would drop off their cats to her to take care of them and she had been put into a nursing home and they found over 400 cats in her 2 bedroom home! So i see the over welming cat population.! dont judge the town or ppls in it if you dont live the life there! LOVE YA MR AND MRS TOLAR! LOVE THE ALLEN FAMILY

Terry Tolar ordered the animal control quitly to posin the stray cats last year sometime and they started to die all over Grand Saline. Terry Tolar is pure white trash and even the city of Tyler where he works for the fire department will tell you the same

Terry C. Tolar went to work for the City of Tyler on October 4, 1982 as a Fireman in the Fire
Department. He was promoted to Fire Driver/Engineer on July 20, 2003, the position he now holds.
We are pleased to present Terry with a 25 year service pin for his many years of service with the City
of Tyler.