Works board partially approves UCAPS funding request

Billy Murphy is building custom cat kennels for the cats that will be housed at the adoption center. The cat room also includes climbing and scratching posts and a view outside. The chair in the center of the room will be replaced with a couch or settee so visitors can sit and play with the cats. The art featured in this room was donated by UCAPS volunteers Angelica Wurth and Michael Kellys.
Billy Murphy is building custom cat kennels for the cats that will be housed at the adoption center. The cat room also includes climbing and scratching posts and a view outside. The chair in the center of the room will be replaced with a couch or settee so visitors can sit and play with the cats. The art featured in this room was donated by UCAPS volunteers Angelica Wurth and Michael Kellys.

Following a lengthy discussion last week, the El Dorado Works Board agreed to partially fund a request to assist the Union County Animal Protection Society with a program to help control the city’s stray cat population.

During an EWB meeting Dec. 10, board members heard a funding proposal for the nonprofit organization’s trap-neuter-return program, which was launched last spring.

UCAPS volunteer Anjelica Wurth presented the request for a three-year TNR plan, starting with $20,000 to target 150 cats in the first year; $18,000 for 130 cats in the second year; and $15,000 for 110 cats in the third year.

Several board members expressed doubt that the city’s El Dorado Works tax — a one-cent sales tax that is geared toward economic development, municipal infrastructure and quality-of-life projects — was the appropriate funding source for the project.

“This is an issue for our beautiful city here in El Dorado. We hear it from many, many folks that are calling on UCAPS to help with cats and kittens,” Wurth said.

“We don’t have all the resources to be able to care for all of our community’s needs when it comes to these homeless or stray cats,” she continued, adding that the most effective way to deal an over-population of stray cats is the TNR program and that other cities have reported successes with the program.

Wurth explained that humane traps are set to catch cats so that they may be spayed or neutered and then released back into their colonies “so that they get to live out their natural lives.”

She also said the TNR program has proven to be more cost-effective than euthanasia, explaining that cats live in colonies and are territorial.

“The minute you euthanize five cats, there’s five more cats ready to move in. By having cats that are already spayed and neutered, you keep those other cats from moving in,” Wurth said.

She said UCAPS began the TNR program with little seed money that came from community donations and has since spayed and neutered approximately 62 cats, more than half of which were female, preventing litters of hundreds of kittens.

UCAPS volunteer Terra Walker later told the News-Times a colony of about 28 cats that are often seen roaming near dumpsters at an empty commercial building that is adjacent to Chick-A-Dilly, 1201 W. Hillsboro, was the first to be targeted by the TNR program.

Cats that are TNRed can be identified in the community because their ears are tipped after they go through the program.

The cats on West Hillsboro and others are often fed by local residents, Wurth and Walker said.

“Our community does tell us that they’re OK with having what I call community cats, stray cats, because they do address other kinds of needs in terms of rodent population and snake control,” Wurth told EWB members. “They don’t mind having these cats in their community as long as they’re controlled and there’s not 30 of them versus, you know, having five.”

Wurth said UCAPS receives several calls and social media requests each week to assist with cats, particularly during “kitten season” — February through September.

She said UCAPS operates off community donations and $10,000 per year from Union Count, noting that monthly expenditures average $15,000.

Wurth also pointed out that the city’s animal control service — the city contracts for services with Charles Hartsell, former owner of Hartsell Pest Control, to address dog issues — does not deal with cats.

The city previously assisted UCAPS and other community organizations, including the Boys and Girls Club of El Dorado, Court Appointed Special Advocates and the South Arkansas Development Center, with funding through its then-special projects budget.

Several of those services were cut in 2005 as city officials dealt with tight revenue projections in the 2006 city budget.

The El Dorado City Council later agreed to move the boys and girls club to its parks budget and resumed a contract for services with the club, saying that the city does not provide an organized youth recreation program.

Funding for UCAPS and other programs was not reinstated.

Over the years, UCAPS officials have returned to the council with funding requests without success.

They have said that the majority of the calls they receive for assistance with animal problems come from within city limits and they work with the city’s animal control service on such issues.

Wurth said Dec. 10 that the group had spoken with several city officials who expressed their support for funding or the TNR program, helped craft the funding proposal and directed her to the EWB.

She did not name the city officials with whom she has spoken.

Worth said the TNR program flows through local veterinarians and UCAPS volunteers also drive cats to Little Rock

Walker and Wurth said that while local vets offer some discounted rates for spay-neuter services for UCAPS, the services are often cheaper in Little Rock.

“We’ve exhausted all our funds we raised last year and we don’t have any funds for next year,” Wruth told EWB members.

UCAPS volunteer Gretchen Barkis said she and her husband moved to El Dorado from Austin, Texas, last year and she immediately noticed numerous stray cats and dogs in the city.

Barkis, who became emotional at times, said she feeds stray cats and dogs in her neighborhood and has helped stay dogs get adopted, having once driven several hours to do so.

She said the seeing stray animals roaming the city left a bad first impression of El Dorado and gave the appearance that “this community does not care about its pets.”

Barkis said the stray cats she feeds have begun marking her house as their territory and while she has tried to relocate them, she often has to clean urine from her house, sometimes several times a day.

EWB member Avo Vartenian asked if spaying and neutering would help prevent such issues, and Wurth said, “Yes. It keeps them from marking their territories.”

“I see the need and I see there is a problems out there. I’m just on the fence about if this is the right place to get the money or not,” EWB member Criag Mobley said later.

Vartenian also said he did not know see into which category of the El Dorado Works plan would accommodate the funding request.

The categories include community development, public works, economic development, festival city development and construction, maintenance and non-designated.

Alison Abson, EWB treasurer, cited the potential danger stray cats could pose to children in the community and after further discussion, she suggested that the board approve a maximum amount of $10,000 and take the money from the non-designated fund,

“Let’s give them half to see how it goes the first year,” Abson said, making a motion to that effect.

The group voted 3 -1 in favor of Abson’s motion, with Mobley voting no and EWB chairman Greg Downum abstaining, noting that he works with at least two UCAPS volunteers at Murphy USA.

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