City of Lewes adopts new feral cat ordinance

LEWES, Del. – After months of deliberation, the City of Lewes finally voted to adopt a new ordinance on how to handle their feral cat population.

The city previously considered euthanasia as a way to manage the feral cats, but animal lovers expressed concern saying this wasn’t the right solution.

Instead, animal lovers from places like the Brandywine Valley SPCA in Georgetown encouraged the city to adopt a trap, neuter and return program (TNR) to help manage the population.

We’re told the TNR program is very common throughout the country and has been shown to help stabilize and reduce the amount of feral cats.

With kitten season kicking off, we’re told a program like this would be highly beneficial to the city, and the BVSPCA.

Walt Fenstermacher, the Senior Director of Operations for the Brandywine Valley SPCA said, “We are going into the kitten season, so when we have cats that come in through a TNR program, kittens, we’ll be able to evaluate them for adoption and most often bring them into our programs into our shelters to be able to bring them into new homes.”

This ordinance is only temporary, the council is expected to work out the details to come up with a more permanent solution in the coming months.