Council approves TNVR ordinance for WO

WEST ORANGE, NJ — More than a year after animal rights advocates first appeared en masse before the West Orange Township Council requesting that a Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return program be implemented, the council approved an ordinance officially endorsing the concept and legally exempting resident caretakers from the township’s wild animal feeding ban during its Feb. 9 meeting.

TNVR is a practice in which feral cats are captured, spayed or neutered, vaccinated and returned to where they were found; supporters say it is the most effective and humane way of controlling a community’s homeless cat population.

All five council members voted in favor of the TNVR ordinance on its second and final reading. It had passed on first reading Jan. 5 with four positive votes and an abstention from Councilwoman Michelle Casalino.

And while the West Orange TNVR group has been practicing the tenets of TNVR since forming in response to the feeding ban in December 2014, the nonprofit’s founder Judy Stier said she appreciated the council taking the ordinance into consideration. With the ordinance approved, her organization has the township’s official backing as it continues its efforts to reduce West Orange’s feral cat population through TNVR — a mission Stier said is going well so far.

“It’s been quite successful — more successful than I ever thought,” Stier said, adding that West Orange TNVR has applied TNVR to 74 cats and 41 kittens since launching. Of those kittens, she said 36 have been adopted with the other five still recovering from health issues.

Kevin Malanga, a West Orange TNVR supporter and attorney who played a major role in helping to craft the final ordinance, also expressed support for the measure prior to its passage. Malanga said the dedication of Stier and her numerous volunteers deserves to be recognized, especially considering the positive impact they have had on the town already.

“It’s a simple program; it benefits the community; it’s of no cost to the community,” Malanga said. “Hundreds of homeless kittens would have been born had (township feral cats) not been trapped and spayed and neutered. And that’s thanks to Judy Stier and all the other volunteers in the community.”

Stier and the rest of West Orange TNVR will be able to continue their work for the foreseeable future as long as they follow the operating rules laid out in the ordinance, starting with the fact that no colony — a group of feral cats living together in the wild that is overseen by a caretaker — may be within 200 feet of a school or day care center. Colonies also cannot be located on private or public property without the approval of the appropriate property owner or government official.

The duties West Orange TNVR must abide by as the program’s sponsor, which is the animal welfare organization that manages TNVR on behalf of a township, are also dictated by the ordinance.

Specifically, it must register all cat colonies, ensure that caretakers are complying with ordinance requirements, help resolve any complaints regarding the conduct of caretakers or their cats, and maintain records regarding colony size and location as well as the vaccination and sterilization of cats. Additionally, the measure says it is the sponsor’s responsibility to report annually to West Orange the number of registered colonies it has, the total number of cats within those colonies, the number of those cats that have been sterilized and vaccinated, and the number of cats and kittens that have been adopted or fostered.

The caretakers working under the sponsor have obligations as well, according to the ordinance. Among them, caretakers must notify sponsors of all colonies for registration; make reasonable efforts to trap, sterilize and vaccinate feral cats within a colony in addition to updating vaccinations as required by law; maintain medical records for all cats and give yearly status reports on colonies to the sponsor; and work with the sponsor to resolve complaints. Caretakers are also expected to provide food and water to their cats on a regular basis, though the measure stresses that food must be placed outside after dawn and be removed before dusk, and that food should not stay in the open for more than two hours during that period.

As for enforcement, the ordinance mandates that the sponsor will have 45 days upon written notice of a complaint to remedy any nuisance. If the problem is not corrected in that time, the township has the right to remove the offending cat. And if any caretakers or the sponsor organization itself routinely fails to resolve issues within the deadline, the township can also remove the caretakers’ colonies and rescind the organization’s sponsorship.

In return, the ordinance states that if the township or an animal control agency discovers an unregistered cat colony in town, the caretaker will be given a 30-day grace period upon written notice to register the colony with the sponsor without the risk of having any cats removed.

Approval of the ordinance does not mean, however, that it will not be changed down the road. In an email read to the council, Theresa De Nova, the township health officer, said she would like to make some modifications to the ordinance after it is passed. In a Feb. 15 email to the Chronicle, De Nova said she particularly wants to see language included that mandates only West Orange residents can act as caretakers within the town and that caretakers should get permission from nearby property owners before starting a colony. Casalino, who previously told the Chronicle she had abstained from the vote on first reading due to a lack of familiarity with TNVR, said during the Feb. 9 meeting that she also would be interested in adding some “minor tweaks” to the measure in the near future to address some concerns she still has about the program.

Any such amendments would have to be approved by the council. But potential changes aside, Councilman Jerry Guarino said he is satisfied with the document as it stands, calling it a “model ordinance” that other communities can follow. Guarino, who spearheaded the effort to craft a TNVR ordinance and helped West Orange TNVR obtain nonprofit status, added that he is happy to give the group an opportunity to thrive and is confident about its future.

“I know that your hearts and minds are in the right place and that it will be a successful program,” Guarino told the West Orange TNVR members in attendance.

West Orange joins more than 150 municipalities throughout New Jersey that have used some form of TNVR as a way of controlling the state’s estimated 147,000 feral cats. In fact, according to the nonprofit Alley Cat Allies, New Jersey has more TNVR ordinances on record than any other state in the country with 63 in 2013.

Towns that adopt TNVR have seen a definite reduction in the number of feral cats roaming their streets; according to People for Animals Executive Director Jane Guillaume, whose presentation on TNVR helped build enthusiasm for the program among council members last year, Cape May saw an 80-percent reduction in its feral population in its first four years of implementing TNVR while Morristown had a 76-reduction in its first five years.

Beyond reducing the population, advocates say towns that adopt TNVR should also notice a reduction in nuisance complaints. That is because many issues related to cats, including odor and screaming, are directly connected to mating. Sterilization, then, should positively affect these issues.

Of course, TNVR also has its fair share of detractors. Opponents point out that a poorly managed colony could lead to the spread of diseases such as rabies and toxoplasmosis if the cats are not treated or retreated.

They also say that prolonging feral cats’ lives means birds and other prey will be killed off in larger numbers. And while feral populations may be reduced locally, they argue that TNVR cannot be applied to all the estimated 70 million feral cats in the United States, so the program is pointless in the long run.