[Added 4-25-18 by Ord. No. 7-2018]
Community Cat means any free-roaming, feral, or barn cat
that may be cared for by one or more residents of the immediate area
and which has no discernible form of ownership identification.
Community cat caregiver means a person who may provide care,
including food, water, shelter or medical care to a community cat.
A community cat caregiver shall not be considered to be the owner,
custodian, harborer, controller, or keeper of a community cat.
Community Cat Colony means a group of cats that congregates,
more or less, together as a unit.
Eartipping means the removal of the 1/4 inch tip of community
cat's left ear, performed while the cat is under anesthesia by
a licensed veterinarian and designed to be an indication that the
community cat has been sterilized and vaccinated for rabies.
Feral Cat means a cat that (i) is born in the wild or is
the offspring of an owned or feral cat and is not socialized or (ii)
is a formerly owned cat that has been abandoned and is no longer socialized.
A.
Purpose. To permit implementation of a community cat program (CCP)
in the Borough of Woodbury Heights, New Jersey for the purpose of
reducing the population of feral and free roaming cats, benefitting
public health, improving the quality of life for residents, and ensuring
the humane treatment of community cats.
B.
Implementation. The appropriate "Borough Official" as such term is defined in Section 51-6 shall administer and implement the programs set forth in this Article in accordance with applicable guidelines and standards as set forth in state and local statute.
C.
Community Cats.
(1)
The Borough establishes the following community cat requirements:
(a)
Community cats may be cared for on the private property of the
caregiver or upon the property of another with the permission of the
owner or property manager.
(b)
All community cat caregivers shall make reasonable efforts to
have all free-roaming cats within their care sterilized, vaccinated
against rabies, and ear-tipped for easy identification.
(c)
All community cat caregivers are required to make reasonable
efforts to provide certain necessities to each community cat under
his/her care on a regular/ongoing basis, including, but not limited
to, proper nutrition, adequate quantities of visibly clean and fresh
water and medical care as needed. If medical care is unavailable or
too expensive, the community cat caregiver must not allow the cat
to suffer. Feeding is permitted during daylight hours only. Food must
be offered to cats in a container and shall not be dumped on the ground.
Any food remaining after cats have eaten must be removed before dark.
Feeding areas must be maintained in a clean and sanitary condition.
(d)
Community cat caregivers shall make reasonable attempts to remove
young kittens from the field for domestication.
(2)
Community cats meeting the requirements of this Article are exempt
from any licensing, stray, and at-large provisions of this Article.
(3)
The Borough Official shall have the right to remove or authorize
the removal of any free-roaming cat or community cat because of immediate
public health or safety concerns.
(4)
No community cat shall be released at any governmentally owned or
managed park, natural area, area deemed as environmentally sensitive
land or on any easement adjacent to such lands without approval from
the Borough Official.
(5)
Healthy community cats that have been trapped by the Borough Official
in accordance with this Article, shall be considered to be "on the
property of the owner" and thus not stray (off the property of the
owner) to be impounded. Healthy community cats shall be immediately
returned to the location at which they were found, released to a caregiver
or adopted. Prior to being returned to the location at which they
were found or released to a caregiver, community cats shall be sterilized,
ear tipped while under anesthesia by a licensed veterinarian, and
vaccinated for rabies. Notwithstanding the foregoing, whenever such
cat is visibly injured or diseased and appears to be suffering and
it reasonably appears that such cat cannot be expeditiously cured
and returned to the field, transferred to a humane society or private
animal nonprofit organization or placed in foster care, then the Borough
Official, acting in good faith and upon reasonable belief, may humanely
euthanize the cat upon the advice of a licensed veterinarian.
(6)
Nuisance Abatement and Resolution.
A community cat that:
(a)
Habitually howls, squawks or causes other objectionable noise
resulting in a serious annoyance to a reasonable person, shall be
deemed to be committing an act in violation of this Article; or
(b)
Disturbs the peace by habitually or repeatedly destroying, desecrating
or soiling public or private property shall constitute a public nuisance.
The Borough Official shall investigate an alleged violation
of this section upon the receipt of two sworn affidavits of complaint
in a form provided by the Borough, signed by two unrelated Borough
residents living in separate dwellings in the close vicinity of the
alleged violation. For the enforcement of paragraph (2) herein, one
of the affidavits may be provided by a person who works for a recognized
business or agency that regularly or frequently provides service in
the close vicinity of the alleged violation. The affidavit shall specify
the address or location of the alleged violation, the nature, time
and date(s) of the act, the name and address of the owner or custodian,
if known, and a description of the animal, if known.
The Borough Official, upon the receipt of two sworn affidavits
of complaint as provided for in this section, may issue a citation
to the owner or custodian of any animal alleged to be in violation
of this section.
