Texas AG asked to weigh in on trap, neuter, return programs - The Dallas Morning News

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AUSTIN — Trap, neuter, return programs are popular across Texas as a way to control feral cat populations. But one local official is now posing a thorny question: Are they legal?

Brazoria County District Attorney Tom Selleck has asked the attorney general’s office to determine whether the initiatives run afoul of animal cruelty laws that criminalize abandonment.

Selleck insists he is not trying to put an end to the programs, but instead wants clarification as several cities in his area consider their use.

“We’re certainly not saying it’s a bad program, quite the contrary, I think it has some excellent benefits,” he said. “I just don’t want somebody getting arrested over it. I’d like to know what my parameters are as a prosecutor.”

Attorney General Ken Paxton has yet to issue the opinion that could have sweeping implications for animal control efforts in Dallas and other cities. In addition to managing stray cat populations, the programs are also credited with cutting back on nuisance mating behaviors like fighting, yowling and marking.

Generally the programs work like this: Stray cats are trapped, then sterilized and vaccinated by a veterinarian before being returned to where they were found. Animals that have been through the process are often marked with a clipped ear.

In his November letter, Selleck questioned whether the programs may conflict with a state law that makes it a crime to abandon “unreasonably an animal in the person’s custody.”

“Returning the animal into the wild, without making reasonable arrangements for another individual to take custody of said animal, operates as a form of abandonment, by letter of the law,” he wrote. “If the abandonment is made unreasonably, such as leaving the stray in an open and unsafe environment, then that may support a conviction.”

Danielle Bays, a senior analyst for cat protection and policy at the Humane Society of the United States, pushed back on that notion.

“It’s not as if these cats are being left to fend for themselves,” Bays said. The stray cats are returned to the same place they were trapped, she said, often where they’re being fed or cared for by people.

“I don’t know of anywhere where people have actually been charged with abandoning cats when they return them to where they were found,” she said. “If you’re taking those cats and releasing them somewhere else, if you were just dumping them somewhere, that’s not the same thing.”

Bays said the trap, neuter, return programs are more humane than previous efforts to control feral cat populations, which often included taking them to shelters for adoption. If they couldn’t find a home, the cats could be euthanized and the process did little to slow the growth of stray cat populations.

It’s not clear how many cities in Texas rely on trap, neuter, return initiatives, but most major metropolitan areas have active programs.

Dallas Animal Services has a partnership with Spay Neuter Network to to help residents who want to trap and neuter feral cats in their neighborhoods, according to spokesperson Marlo Clingman. The surgery is done at no cost to the person who brings in the cat. The animal is also vaccinated against rabies.

The initiative has no negatives, Clingman said, and has resulted in fewer cats entering shelters.

Paxton has several months to issue a legal opinion. Selleck hopes it will come down during the legislative session, which begins Jan. 10 and runs through May.

“If it is in violation of the law, and the Legislature thinks it’s a good thing,” he said, “then the Legislature needs to change the law.”

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Texas AG asked to weigh in on trap, neuter, return programs - The Dallas Morning News
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