Overrun with feral cats? Mount Prospect to discuss the issue

The issue of feral cats in Mount Prospect has been raised in the past, but it surfaced in low-profile contexts such as the weekly Coffee with Council meetings.

On Tuesday, however, the village board's committee of the whole is scheduled to discuss the matter after a special board meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. at village hall, 50 S. Emerson St.

Residents from the 300 block of South Pine Street and the 300 block of South Elmhurst Avenue say they are fed up with feral cats in their neighborhood. One Elmhurst Avenue resident, Carol Tortorello said someone on the block is feeding the cats. Their presence, she said, has created a nuisance, with cat droppings so plentiful that it prevents neighbors from using their lawns.

Mount Prospect Village Board Trustee Steve Polit said the board plans to gather facts Tuesday, asking questions and receiving information from experts. There also will be presentations on what kind of county programs are in place to handle this problem.

"We will be in our learning mode," he said.

One of the goals will be to discover what jurisdiction the village has when it comes to regulation. Feral cats are governed by county ordinance.

"We might have to direct staff to find some further information," Polit said. "This is the first real time that the board has addressed this issue."

Tortorello said it's not as simple as taking the cats away, as there are certain rules and regulations to abide by.

In the section of the Cook County code that governs managed care of feral cats - cats born in the wild or that are the offspring of such cats - feral cat colonies are allowed to provide food, water and shelter provided that they are registered with a Cook County-approved sponsor.

The sponsor is responsible for reviewing and approving caretakers; resolving complaints over the conduct of caretakers and their cats; and maintaining records of vaccination, microchipping, spaying and neutering.

The caretakers are required to register the colony with a sponsor (a local humane society, for example), vaccinate the colony population for rabies, have the population spayed and neutered by a licensed veterinarian, ear-tipping the left ears of colony cats and making sure cats are equipped with an electronic monitoring device.

Village officials said there appears to be a colony or two registered with Cook County.