71 year old Gerri Dempsey of Conway, SC is facing possible jail time for feeding stray and feral cats, and says they’ll die without her help. A new city ordinance says she must stop feeding them.
Gerri spends $800 each month feeding the stray and feral cats in her area, and says she has fed 38 colonies over the past 15 years. In addition to feeding the cats, she also conducts TNR (Trap, Neuter, Release) operations to keep their numbers in check and guard their health.
Recent changes to the law have resulted in Geri being ticketed and potentially facing jail time after being ordered by a judge to stop feeding the cats. A new ordinance against feeding stray cats in March has brought about Gerri’s troubles with the law. She has been ticketed and has been to court three times, with penalties ranging from a $273 fine for feeding feral colonies to a $455 trespassing fine.
Gerri feels that she cannot, in good conscience, stop caring for the cats. She is worried about going to jail and consequently losing her job, leaving the cats with no one to care for them.
I would do the jail time for you Geri. Lets think of possible remedies for this problem. Hmm I know let’s have open season on all stray cats, wait just all cats in general… If they are outside they should be shot anyway right? While we are getting rid of problems lets not forget to close down all the food pantry’s because we shouldn’t feed the poor cause that will just make more poor people. Nursing homes should be shut down cause well why should we spend tax dollars to fund something that has no purpose to us anymore. How about getting more people involved, have the vets lower the cost of spaying/neutering so these feral cats can’t reproduce and give out humanitarian awards to people like Geri, who spend their own time and dollars to help the world’s voiceless survive!
Good Luck!
No good deed goes unpunished. If she didn’t take care of them and have them neutered the population would be out of control.
So your solution to this whole problem is to treat the cats as Jews and we in turn can be Hitler’s? SICK!
There are ways to do this humanely. A woman in town has dedicated herself to helping stray/feral cats. She has arrangements with a group in town that neuters cats and dogs at a low rate. This woman contracts with this group. She live traps feral cats and has them spayed/neutered. If there are kittens involved, she takes the kittens and raises/socializes them until they are old enough to spay/neuter and then spays/neuters. As soon as they are socialized and can be, she has them adopted out of the local humane society. The adult cats who have been spayed/neutered are released back into “society” to live out their days unable to reproduce. She has developed a non-profit corporation to help with fund raising to be able to do this, and there almost always are people who volunteer their time to help with kitten raising. She is a beloved community member and well known for her altruistic acts. There are definitely ways to deal with the feral populations — it is interesting that these animals can be put to death … be allowed to starve …. but those who abandon them go free. We certainly do live in strange times. And we most definitely are NOT a highly spiritual society, in my opinion. Advanced/highly spiritual societies do not allow this type of cruelty to God’s creatures.
There needs to be more people like Gerri.god love her!if she was helping out ‘stray’ or ‘feral’ humans she would be hailed as a saint.shame on all the people involved. Im glad I live in Australia. Authoroties here appreciate people who volunteer their time n money to help the strays as it keeps them from breeding n causing menace to wildlife.good on u Gerri, more power to u and don’t give up the fight!goodluck n all the best!
Unbelievable! People who do truly unspeakable things to animals walk away with the “slap on the wrist” but someone doing their best to take care of the sad result of other people’s irresponsibility gets fined and faces possible jail. This makes no sense at all.
If she lived in my city. I would take over for her. There will always be a lot of kind people who will feed starving animals even if against the law. Hopefully there are people there who are willing to take over her TNR program too.
TNR works. I have closed two of my feral colonies because of attrition. I retrapped the last two at one colony and I’m in the process of retrapping two more at another colony. They are living with me now.
If she lived in my city. I would take over for her. There will always be a lot of kind people who will feed starving animals even if against the law. Hopefully there are people there who are willing to take over her TNR program too.
TNR works. I have closed two of my feral colonies because of attrition. I retrapped the last two at one colony and I’m in the process of retrapping two more at another colony. They are living with me now.
Spot on.
Obviously you have no idea what these people do for our community. I personally with my neighbor have trapped nuetered/spayed over 200 feral cats in the last 20 years and some of the colonies which started at 40-100 cats has gone down to 10-20. We easily spend 600-1200 a week on food because part of the TNR program is after care for the life of the colony. These women who do this (I am actually a 31yo male who’s been helping my neighbor for 20 yrs) are angels and if they didn’t do this the cats would be out of control in population (like roof rats) So Sadam Hitler Hussain you have no freakin idea how good this Gerri ladies is for your community