Mount Prospect debates cat colony growth

Lisa Pacini doesn't own a cat. But sometimes when she walks outside, they're everywhere.

They ruined her patio furniture. They sleep under her bushes and in her garden. They lounge on her driveway.

"I don't hate cats, I just don't want them in my yard," said Pacini, who often has eight cats in her front and backyards. "I've never had to deal with so much cat poop."

The Mount Prospect village board talked about feral cats at a village workshop on Tuesday. Trustees vowed to look further into the issue after hearing from some residents who are sick and tired of the roaming outdoor cats and others who are fiercely protective of them. Mount Prospect's village code says a homeowner can't own more than three indoor dogs or cats, but doesn't limit the number of feral cats a person can feed as long as that person registers the cat colony with the Cook County Health Department. Once the colony is registered, each cat is trapped, spayed or neutered and given the proper inoculations before being returned to the wild.

Mount Prospect has 44 registered cat colonies. The colonies vary in size from one to 30 cats with the average colony containing about five or six cats, said Serena Fried, president of the Feral Feline Project, a nonprofit group that helps track, spay and neuter the cats.

Feral cats are part of the suburban landscape, much like raccoons or squirrels, Fried said. They can't be adopted and if residents stop feeding them, they will get in garbage cans and garages, Fried said. If feral cats are properly neutered, a colony will die out in about three years, she said.

"You can't scoop them up and take them to some farm," she said. "There is no farm. They have no place to go." What these cats do have are what Fried calls "caretakers" who regularly feed them.

"They consider these cats their pets," she said. "They name them and look after them. I get phone calls from caretakers in tears when one of their cats gets hurt."

Mount Prospect trustees said feral cats are a serious problem in their village, but aren't sure what to do next.

"We have 44 cat colonies and they're not going away," said Trustee Paul Hoefert. "We have to find some relief for the neighbors. I can't imagine having 10 cats roaming my neighborhood."

Trustee Arlene Juracek agreed.

"We're relying on volunteers to handle a large problem," she said. "We're all a little frustrated so maybe we need some stronger rules of the road."

Pacini lives in the 300 block of South Elmhurst Road. The feral cats that wander on to her property are fed by her neighbor Gerry Stone, who lives on the same block. Stone and his wife have been feeding a colony of cats for about a year. The colony is registered and the Stones have used their own money to spay and neuter all of the cats. They also clean up after the cats when they can.

Still, he feels bad for Pacini.

"I want to you know, I didn't mean to upset the neighborhood," said Stone. "We are just trying to bring this problem to a close."