Editor's note: A story on Friday incorrectly stated the employment status of Michael Williams. Although Williams is no longer director of the Wake County Animal Center, he is employed by the county as assistant chief of management services for Wake EMS.
Two stray cats scheduled to be euthanized by Wake County won their freedom Thursday after local and national feline advocacy groups took the county to court.
But the settlement between Wake Animal Services and the nonprofit group Operation Catnip leaves a bigger issue unresolved - will the county allow animal advocates to trap, neuter and then release cats into the wild?
In a complaint filed in Wake County Superior Court, Operation Catnip maintains it had a verbal agreement with Wake Animal Services officials to conduct a trap-neuter-return (TNR) program at the Apex Mobile Estates mobile home park in 2011. Under such a program, feral cats are trapped, sterilized, vaccinated for rabies, then returned to their original location.
TNR is endorsed by national animal advocacy groups as a way to control feral cat populations. Because the cats are returned to their original colonies, their numbers do not multiply exponentially, supporters say.
Operation Catnip alleges that Wake animal control officer Brad Hutzler told a resident of the mobile home park that she could be fined and receive jail time for feeding the stray cats there. She then agreed to trap the cats for Hutzler with traps he provided. Later, she turned over 12 cats to him, and 10 of them were euthanized.
That left two felines, known only as #66905 and #66912.
"Wake County is the capital county of North Carolina, and they should be leading the way on a more humane and sensible approach," said Lisa Krestalude, president of Operation Catnip. "Killing the cats doesn't work - it never has. If killing them worked, we wouldn't be here, because there wouldn't be a problem."
With the aid of the national group Alley Cat Allies, Operation Catnip hired Calley Gerber, a lawyer with Gerber Animal Law Center in Raleigh. They filed suit against the county to stop the killing of the two cats. The suit also says that Wake officials breached their verbal agreement with Operation Catnip, and it requested that the county stop trapping and euthanizing the TNR cats at Apex Mobile Estates.
Krestalude said those doing the TNR program at the mobile home park were sometimes "hassled" by animal control officials because the "return" part of the practice is technically considered animal abandonment. The current policy in Wake is to trap and kill feral cats when they are off their home property or when residents make complaints about them.
Wake's response
Wake County Deputy Manager Joe Durham said a complaint about the cats was received from a resident of the mobile home park. But Gerber's clients dispute that and say Hutzler, the animal control officer, initiated the encounter.
Durham also said he has seen no evidence of any kind of agreement between the county and Operation Catnip about the cats in Apex. Krestalude contends that her group originally consulted with the county before beginning the Apex project because it were applying for a $20,000 PetSmart Charities grant to do the work.
But the officials she said she worked with - Michael Williams, former Wake County Animal Center director and Tommy Esqueda, former Wake County Environmental Services director - are no longer employed by the county.
The current director of the animal center, Dennis McMichael, refused to turn over the cats to Operation Catnip, according to Krestalude, because he said Operation Catnip would "abandon" them, violating Wake's abandonment policy.
Wake County Attorney Scott Warren said any change in animal welfare policies would require action by Wake county commissioners. Warren said he, too, is unaware of any written contracts between the county and Operation Catnip.
McMichael just took over at the Wake County shelter on Nov. 7. The next day, he came under fire after the shelter euthanized Sassy, an 8-month-old Labrador mix, just hours after the puppy, which showed symptoms of having a cold, appeared on WRAL-TV's noon newscast as "Pet of the Day."
Following public outcry, the shelter temporarily suspended its policy of automatically euthanizing sick dogs.
In late January, McMichael announced his resignation, which is effective Feb. 10.
Cats #66905 and #66912, meanwhile, are to be released to Operation Catnip today and taken to a local veterinarian for examination. They will then be freed on the property of a private county resident, who has agreed to feed the cats.
As for the county's long-term policy on handling stray cats, all involved parties agreed to sit down within the next 60 days to discuss it.
