Entities Continue Cat Discussion
Wetzel County Humane Society representative Nancy Christman, along with New Martinsville City Recorder Bonnie Shannon and New Martinsville Council member Jeff Wright, approached Wetzel County Commission Tuesday morning regarding suggestions for county cat control.
The list of suggestions includes that New Martinsville will donate their animal control truck. The county would pay for a full-time, 40-hour a week animal control officer, pay for gasoline expenses, insurance, and upkeep on the animal control truck.
Each town would have a building or area for housing animals, as well as supply cages, food, litter, and cleaning supplies. Furthermore, each town would have a person responsible for caring for the animals (such as feeding the animals and cleaning their cages.)
It was also suggested that the county’s animal control officer would take a picture of each animal, which would be posted on a special animal control Facebook page, with the date and place where the animal was picked up. Animals would be held for five days.
The final suggestion was that there would be a “Work out plan,” possibly a program with veterinarians for euthanizing the animals.
Also submitted was New Martinsville’s previous list of regulations for the city’s animal control person, along with a trapping notice, both suggestions for a possible countywide program.
Christman noted that Wetzel County would probably have to euthanize the cats, as she believes with a small city, trap-neuter-release would not work, seeing as unwanted cats would still be roaming around neighborhoods, disrupting property.
No decisions were made or actions taken by the commission.