KILLEEN, Texas — The Killeen City Council voted to approve a proposed amendment to the city's animal ordinance on Tuesday, April 11 at the regular scheduled council meeting.
In a 4-3 vote, councilmembers decided they want to make changes to the ordinance, specifically in regards to aggressive dogs, wild animals and a lot about feral cats.
One of the changes that was approved Tuesday is a limit on how many feral cats can be in a colony in a residential part of the city. There was no limit before, but now it is six feral cats.
"I think a great injustice was done to the feral cats and the feral cat colony people," said Linda Marzi, an advocate for the felines.
Marzi and others, who were once part of Killeen's Animal Advisory Committee, have been trying to provide information to the council about feral cats and colonies in hopes they wouldn't move forward with the ordinance.
"Now we are only allowed and mandated six kitties to get Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) in a colony," Marzi said. "That makes no sense to me at all, it doesn't help their problems at all."
The City of Killeen said the changes in guidance and regulation for feral cats is happening because nuisance calls about the colonies in residential areas have gotten out of hand.
"I will speak as a representative for district four - West Killeen, over the past two years I've heard numerous complaints about the large number of cats roaming and the fact that we weren't able to do much to to reel that in, this is an opportunity to create a balance," Councilmember Michael Boyd told the crowd at the meeting. "I know that's not what everyone prefers, but I do believe this was appropriate and will be a long term solution."
Three councilmembers did side with the ones advocating for the felines Tuesday. Councilman Riakos Adams, Councilwoman Jessica Gonzalez and Councilman Jose Segarra.
"I'm okay with everything else except the limit on the cats colonies," Segarra said about the ordinance.
He was willing to vote against the ordinance as long as the feral cats advocates and caregivers were willing to help the city work toward a concrete solution.
Gudren Dates said the council's decision won't keep her from calling it quits when it comes to the felines and advocating for them.
"I'm gonna keep feeding the cats, I'm gonna spay, neuter, trap whatever it takes," Dates added. "They're not changing my mind on how to take care of them because I'm going to fight for the cats."
Feral cat advocates believe the revised ordinance is going to bring more stress to the already overwhelmed city animal shelter.
"It's only gonna make it worse," said Anca Neagu who started a local animal nonprofit. "It was bad before, it's only gonna make it worse."
Jan Holladay is currently on the city's Animal Advisory Committee. She told 6 News that the feline population is going to boom, dead or alive, because of the approved amended ordinance. Now her and others are going to have to figure out how to still protect the cats and also the city.
"We're gonna have to figure out ways to track the population and figure out ways to track how many community and feral cats get put down," Holladay added.
Holladay and the others also believe the city just created even more nuisance concerns.
"If [feral cats] aren't here, especially in Killeen, we're gonna have a rat problem -- I grew up here, I know," she said.
No one who supported the cat colonies being limited was in attendance at the meeting, but Mayor Debbie Nash-King said that doesn't reflect the email complaints they have received about the cat colonies.
The proposed ordinance would also have colony caretakers register the groups and help the city with placement of cats. You can read more about the ordinance here.