North Las Vegas council OKs ‘community cat’ pilot program
Stray cats strutting into North Las Vegas could soon be trapped, sterilized and released back to their neighborhoods.
The North Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday night unanimously adopted a “community cat” pilot program that allows volunteers to round up healthy, free-roaming felines for sterilization and vaccination by the Animal Foundation and the Best Friends Animal Society.
“Many people don’t do their due diligence to go and get their kitty cats fixed,” Councilman Isaac Barron said. “If it turns out that we have some side effect of having people who get their kitty cats fixed through this program, then I think, overall, that’s a good thing.”
The Animal Foundation and the Best Friends Animal Society operate similar programs for Clark County and the city of Las Vegas in hopes of sterilizing about 5,000 cats and reducing feline euthanasia rates by 85 percent over the next three years. The program is funded by a grant given to the two organizations.
Cats who are treated will have their ear-tips clipped for identification and sent back to the areas where they were found.
“Part of the program would be to eliminate that continuous cycle of getting more kittens, and more kittens, which contributes to more euthanasia,” Councilman Richard Cherchio said. “It may not be a perfect program, but it’s a step in the right direction.”
Separately, the City Council on Wednesday unanimously approved a measure that requires pet shops to only sell animals from shelters and nonprofit pet-rescue groups, following a similar decision adopted earlier this year by the neighboring city of Las Vegas.
The council is scheduled to give its final approval to the plan on Nov. 16.
Even though there aren’t any pet stores in North Las Vegas, city officials said that they are preparing for the future in hopes of barring store owners from purchasing animals from commercial breeders and “puppy mills.”
Contact Art Marroquin at amarroquin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0336. Find @AMarroquin_LV on Twitter.
