From: Tammy Wong <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 3, 2022 11:39 AM
To: Mayor and Council <[email protected]> Subject: [External] Public Comment about Napa Shelter contract & services Hello Mayor & Council,
As a resident, I am asking each of you to bring our current contract with the Napa County Animal Shelter to a Council meeting for public input and review before it is approved. The lack of transparency around decisions that have been made has been disappointing.
Napa shelter says we’re not sheltering healthy stray pet cats. They’re going to become community cats now – and live outside with the feral cats, just spay & neuter them at Napa Humane, and return them back where found.
Napa Humane says we’re fully booked, sorry, can’t spay/neuter this community cat today. Maybe we’ll have a cancellation tomorrow.
The lack of spay/neuter resources to follow the county’s new strategy is like the Abbott & Costello version of “Who’s got a spay/neuter surgery for a community cat”.
I want to volunteer and help our city and reduce our population of unhoused community cats. Yet, the county and by extension our city with its contract with the Napa shelter, is not giving us any resources for spay/neuter for community cats.
I had a Mama cat and her litter show up in my backyard last year after the fireworks. At that time Napa Humane offered 10 walk-in appointments for feral cats, and I used the county program to get Mama and her kittens altered.
If that happens to me again this year, what would I do?? I do know this -- our local vet charges $900- 1000 for a spay surgery. A mama cat is capable of both nursing and getting pregnant again.
Our one small spay/neuter clinic in Napa is already overwhelmed. Yet, as anyone who attends city meetings know, we have 3,844 new housing units in Napa County to be built in the 6th cycle Housing Element. American Canyon alone has 860 approved units from Oat Hill, Lemos Pointe, Watson Ranch, and Napa Cove. As our human population grows, so will our pet population, and the need for spay/neuter services.
Your community cat volunteers in American Canyon can help stabilize and eventually reduce the population of unhoused community cats. But we need access to spay/neuter resources to help our city accomplish that. Did you know that other counties have their own spay/neuter resources and don’t rely on a private non-profit?
I remember being astounded that Oat Hill would pay like $4 million in development fees to Parks & Recreation for new park development. I believe we also have development impact fees for a new city hall, library and police station. What about spay/neuter?? We seriously need to independently assess what we want for our city as far as increasing our community cat population living in our neighborhoods and open spaces. The lack of available spay/neuter surgery will cause a spike in new births, but at least they will get to hangout in the new park spaces.
Thank you for listening to my concerns, and I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Tammy Wong