The Sioux Falls City Council is weighing an ordinance that allows stray cats to be vaccinated and returned to their original location.
This comes after the state Legislature passed a bill allowing the practice known as “trap-neuter-return" to reduce the feral cat population.
Ryan Spellerberg is a member of the council. He said the ordinance creates an alternative solution to the city’s overflow of feral cats.
“Our humane society does not want to be a kill shelter. And this year they’re projecting killing 420 cats, or euthanizing. So, our goal here is just simply to reduce the population of feral cats in the city so the humane society doesn’t have to do this measure,” Spellerberg said.
He said the costs of vaccinating the cats would not fall on the city but the humane society or other private entities.
A second reading of the ordinance was approved for Dec. 17.
