SACO, Maine — The city of Saco is unsure of its authority to intervene after homeowners complained about a cat colony in the village of Camp Ellis.
The Bourque family, who owns homes at 15 and 17 Bay Ave. that are rented during the summer, have complained to the city that cats being fed by Colin and Lucinda Wormwood, who own a restaurant and live on the street, are littering the lawns of their properties with feces. The Bourque family has asked the city to capture the cats and remove them.
City attorney Tim Murphy, in court documents, said state law requires the city to control dogs running at large and could be read to suggest there is no authority to require the city to control cats running at large.
Murphy describes the cats as “neither truly feral nor truly domesticated.”
“They are wild by nature, but will respond to humans by repetitious feeding as done by the Wormwoods,” said Murphy.
The city is unsure if it has the authority to intervene and has asked the court for a declaratory judgment as to whether it may trap the cats and take them to a shelter or euthanize them if a shelter refuses to take them, according to Code Enforcement Officer Dick Lambert.
The court has asked all parties to meet at a mediation session on Aug. 21.
Mayor Mark Johnston said the city will do as the court tells it to, but he believes wild cats, if they are becoming an issue with a neighbor, need to be controlled.
“These cats have no citizenship in Saco” and can be removed and adopted by anyone who wants to, he said.
The Bourques, through court documents prepared by their attorney, Peter Clifford, allege their property has decreased in value and has become unrentable, and that the cat feces on the property causes serious health risks. They said the Wormwoods have “gathered and fed dozens of stray cats,” creating a nuisance on or near the Bourque properties.
Mark Bourque, a power of attorney of David Bourque, who owns a home at 17 Bay Ave., is suing the Wormwoods over the same issue in a separate suit.
Eleanor Saboski, a volunteer with Friends of Feral Felines, said the organization was called to start a trap/neuter/release program two years ago. She said volunteers worked with five different local veterinary clinics and 61 cats were spayed or neutered, vaccinated and tested for disease, and found to be healthy. She said all the kittens and some of the cats were adopted, and 24 were released back. Saboski said she makes regular stops to visit the cats, and believes that there are about 11 there today.
She said there’s been a long history of cats in Camp Ellis, and they have controlled the rat population.
Dr. Kipp Temm, with the York County Animal Hospital, said he’s worked with the cats for about 10 years. Over this time, 200 kittens have been adopted out, he said. The Wormwoods have been paying to get the kittens spayed, neutered and vaccinated, and the numbers of cats have decreased over the years because of these efforts.
He said the cats have been tested for leukemia and feline AIDS, and there haven’t been any cases. He said if there were any cats with diseases, he wouldn’t put them back so the other cats would not be at risk.
Temm said in summer communities like Camp Ellis, there is always an issue of cats being left behind after summer residents leave. Temm said that according to state law, cats are allowed to roam.
He said cat fecal matter isn’t really a health risk unless someone picks up the feces with bare hands and doesn’t wash them later. He said the biggest health issue with cats is rabies, and these cats have been vaccinated.
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Cat colonies need to be cleaned up and eliminated. Feral cats wreak havoc in neighborhoods and even in the rural areas.
They control the rats… I’d rather have cats than rats
Diseases spread by fleas and ticks ….
bubonic plague ….
Cat Scratch Fever…
syphilis … wait a minute, why are we talking about Ted Nugent?
What’s new pussycat?
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I can see why the neighbors would be upset. I have cats that love my garden. In my opinion, there is nothing more gross, than finding a fresh pile next to the beans!.
Suing the neighbors for feeding cats? Sorry, but that sounds like a total dbag move.
It sounds like a crappy situation all around.
The lawn was a real catastrophe.
We’ve lost hundreds of dollars of flowering plants, vegetables, rare birds, and chipmunks to cats from a near-by ‘cat house’ and neighbors who refuse to leash or even collar their cats and let them roam all night.
**When caught if collared, they are released with a note that the next time they will be relocated elsewhere.
Easier to buy a trap and relocate them to a nice island with a few eagles and fishers for neighbors.
Feral cats are nasty and carry disease, as do even house cats; so read up on trap sizes, bait, etc.
Skunks are tricky; they can raise their tail while in the trap, but are generally gentle if you are gentle. They can be rabid so examine them carefully and if you think they are diseased, call fish & game.
I put my feral cats in a cradle, you can catch them with a silver spoon, my little boy named Blue helps me bring them to the man on moon st.
He called me today and asked when I was coming home, I said I didn’t know when but we’ll get together then.
It’s the one I saw mutilate a family of baby rabbits that I want, and the other one who snatched a baby chipmunk, and……
…lived happily ever after?
These cats are NOT feral, it is clear from the article. Sometimes I wonder if people just read the headline without reading the information in the article.
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They breed with and transmit diseases and fleas witn domestic cats on the loose.
Cats need to be licensed and kept from roaming the same as dogs. A responsible owner keeps their pet at home, dog or cat.
S S S
SHOOT
SHOVEL
SHUT UP
I’d find some beach sand.
Humans and cats have had an uneasy relationship since the beginning of time. Origionally humans liked cats because they kept stores of wheat and grain vermin free, while not eating any of the grain.
Then in the middle ages, the citizenry decided cats were evil and tools of Satan. They killed hundreds of cats virtually wiping out the entire cat population of Europe. The result was that the rat population exploded, and spread the black Plague across Europe and the near East exterminating 25% of the known world’s population.
Europeans again embraced the cat as a necessary part of their environment.
Later in the new world the settlers of Salem Massachusetts equated cats with witches, and killed them along with their owners. More disease, another change of heart, and the cat remains.
Today cats are more popular than dogs as pets. They are loving, easily trained, and (when domesticated ) incredibly clean. Cats do not thrive in a dirty environment.
The argument that cats are disease carriers is fallacious. The human mouth carries 7 times the number of germs found in a cat’s rectum.
I see you rebutted the dirty argument but said nothing about cats being tools of satan.
Interesting….
If Satan exists, his most effective “tools” are human.
Nope cats, with rabbits a close second.
Cats are also effective in controlling any burgeoning mummy infestations.
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The smell of cat urine is offensive and cat poop is offensive as well. My neighbors cat poops in my vegetable garden all the time. I have no pets why should I have to clean up after my neighbors cat? I say a leash law just like dogs, either that or keep your cats in your house…oh yeah you don’t want to smell their urine or poop either…. ; )
Mothballs work great at keeping cats out of the gardens. .
Thank you will put some out as soon as I can stop by the hardware store….
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Dr. Kipp Temm, with the York County Animal Hospital, said he’s worked
with the cats for about 10 years. He said the cats have been tested for leukemia and feline AIDS, and
there haven’t been any cases. He said if there were any cats with
diseases, he wouldn’t put them back so the other cats would not be at
risk.
Hopefully, having had worked with cats for so long, Dr. Temm knows that FeLV can lie dormant in the bone marrow for a very long time. IMO, better to just vaccinate them.
If you read the article, they are vaccinated. I think we should be singing the praises of two people who for all intents and purposes are taking care of others irresponsible pet ownership. The cats are spayed, neutered and have all their vaccinations so they pose NO disease risk at all.
Jump down my throat, why don’t you. I did read the article, even quoted it in my comment. The cats you are talking about were vaccinated 2 years ago. Plenty of time for infected and/or unneutered cats to come along and reproduce.
BTW, I’m with you that it’s irresponsible humans that cause messes like this.
I never could understand why cats have been allowed to run the streets. They cause just as much damage as a dog does sometimes more. I say make cat owners license their pets and make it illegal to have a roaming cat just as it is for dogs.
Cats are killing machine that decimate wildlife populations of partridge, turkeys, rabbits, etc. They should be treated no differently than dogs running loose. Trap them, shelter them and if unable to foster home them, euthanize.
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My father hates it when cats take a dump in his yard. He has actually been sitting on his porch and watched while the neighbor’s cat comes over and leaves its little gift in the flowerbeds. All he does is scoops it up and dumps it back in the neighbor’s yard. Well…that and shoots at the cats with a BB gun. Never hits ’em, but when they jump, whooo-eeee! Now that’s entertaining.
ok really people these cats are left for these people to care for and yes they have cared for them. I really think the people that have cat poop on their lawns need to get a hobby. Yes feral cat colonys can get out of control but it seems they are just trying to cope with irresponsible cat owners that leave their pets there. So instead of prosecuting them maybe just watch to see whom is leaving their animals there and make them accountable. If you do not want an animal bring it to the shelter. How many times have you heard about cats and dogs just being dropped on the side of the road when they are no longer cute and become a responsibilty. All the money they are spending on attorneys why not hire a kid in the neighborhood to clean it up. Will give a kid something to do to earn money and will make the home owner happy. hello find solutions instead of sueing.
also if you read the article it is all about money…. SUE SUE SUE if anyone ones about rental property lately it is getting harder to find good tenants that make sure they pay their rent this will be another reason why they cannot rent the apartments or why the renters are not paying time will tell if this stuff comes out lol it will… Greed at the expense of others is horrible and should be ashamed of oneself.