Schaumburg poised to test cat-control law

For at least a year, Schaumburg likely will comply with a new Cook County law allowing the trapping, neutering and release of wild cats as a way of controlling their numbers.

But the cat colonies for which this can be done must be registered with the county almost immediately to be in compliance with the law.

The village's health and human services committee Thursday agreed with a staff recommendation to adopt the law on a trial basis.

The village board will formally vote on it March 11.

Currently, village officials know of only two wild cat colonies -- both of them on Schaumburg Park District property.

One is at the Spring Valley Nature Center, while the other is at the adjoining Volkening Heritage Farm.

Park officials are fine with the one that helps control mice at the farm but consider the other a nuisance, village Code Compliance Manager Mary Passaglia said.

Under the new law, the park district -- as property owner -- would be free to either adopt the trap-neuter-release program or have the cats removed from its land permanently, Passaglia said.

Humane societies that lobbied Cook County for the law insist the trap-neuter-release approach is a more effective way of controlling wild cat populations than euthanizing them.

They argued that the permanent removal of a cat only allows another to move into its territory -- one that can still reproduce. But a sterile cat acts as a placeholder in the territory, ensuring that no kittens are born, they said.

Passaglia said the village felt more comfortable about the program after assurances from county animal control officials that the trap-neuter-release approach controls existing colonies without creating new ones.

Schaumburg believes it did not have to automatically comply with the county law that took effect Nov. 16 because it's a home rule community, Village Manager Ken Fritz said.

County officials feel differently about the village's reliance on this usual exemption because this concerns a problem that doesn't recognize municipal boundaries, Fritz added.

Members of the local PACT Humane Society asked if other existing colonies in the village can still be registered to comply. Schaumburg officials advised they contact the county as soon as possible.