Recordpub.com - Options for dealing with stray cats in Kent limited

By Matt Fredmonsky

Record-Courier staff writer

Wes Rhodes and Elizabeth Milton drove up to the Kent dog impound with their boxer, Mercedes, hanging her tongue out the passenger window.

The couple is thinking about adopting another dog from the city kennel where they rescued Mercedes nearly a year ago.

I used to always drive out here and stop for the heck of it, Rhodes said. One day I came out and saw her out of all the dogs here and I just had to have her.

The Kent couple stops periodically to see the dogs in the city kennel and is kind of looking for another one, Milton said.

Though the adoption program may work well for the citys stray dogs, there is no program for stray cats at large in Kent.

Dana Frazier, the Kent police officer who handles animal cases, operates the citys kennel and dog adoption program.

Frazier can hold dogs for three days, by city ordinance, before allowing them to be adopted or turning them over to the Portage Animal Protective League or the county dog warden. Frazier typically holds dogs four days.

But cats reported to Frazier are trapped and taken directly to the PAPL. Frazier does not hold cats at the temporary kennel.

The PAPL is a no-kill shelter, but can only take so many felines. A contract between Kent and the PAPL limits the shelter to accepting six cats per month from the city. Frazier had taken six felines to the PAPL by July 11 last month.

If someone calls up I have to say Sorry, I cant do anything with them, he said.

Frazier said he would be willing to trap a cat for someone if that person planned to get the cat shots and give it a home.

Id rather do that than see this, he said, referring to pounds of cat food spread in the woods behind the old Pizza Hut location on South Water Street.

Are they really doing these cats a favor by doing this? he asked. Its not fair to the cats and its certainly not healthy.

He has picked up 70 dogs in Kent this year. Of those dogs, 47 were returned to their owners, 14 were adopted and seven usually the agressive ones went to the county dog warden.

Fraziers objective has been to find homes for the stray dogs so they dont have to be euthanized by the county.

If we didnt have the adoption program thats 14 dogs that would be destroyed, he said. By the end of the year thats 28.

As far as cats are concerned, Frazier advocates for people to adopt strays.

Do what I do, he said, take out an ad. There is a problem out there and we are doing something.

Part II in a three-part series examining the areas stray animal population. Next: An inside look at the Portage Animal Protective League and how you can help the stray animal population.