Several residents of the Southwestern Pennsylvania town of North Charleroi lost their pet cats recently after the town hired an animal control officer from another town to round up and remove its ferals. The town claims the feral cats have caused property damage. The concerned residents fear the worst and want answers from the town.
Town Councilman Fred Schwalb said of the feral cats, “They’re running wild, they’re destroying people’s property.” When asked by a reporter about the cat owners’ concerns, Schwalb responded “All the comments and everything will be handled at a public meeting to be held in the near future.”
One woman missing her cat said, “I have repeatedly asked where have you taken these cats? We have the right to know what had happened to them and nobody will release that information to us.”
“They did trap two of my cats and the third one’s missing,” Beverly Deutsch said, continuing while talking about traps set on her lawn, “I’ve cried a lot because I walk out of my house to see where they had a cage. Every day I look out my door and there’s where they had the cage that killed them.” Ms. Deutsch said her cats were spayed and two of the three wore collars.
North Charleroi hired Patsy Vince, Animal Control officer in Donora, to trap the cats, then suspended his operation. Residents say they were not told about or given fair warning of the trapping operation, and now their cats are gone and no one will tell them anything.
