ROELAND PARK, KANSAS. — A fuss over felines is churning in a Johnson County neighborhood.
Steven Lewis has lived in his Roeland Park home for 20 years. In that time, he has had to deal with dozens of feral cats roaming the neighborhood.
Lewis trapped a couple feral cats and turned them in to animal control just last year. But because the cats were wild, animal control said there was nothing at all they could do with them.
“These are cats you can’t find homes for. They’re going to be nobody’s pets,” Lewis said.
He turned to Great Plains SPCA and the humane society hoping to find answers.
“Both of them said we don’t want the feral cats. They said we recommend what we call Trap Neuter and Return. You trap the cats and bring them to us. We will neuter them, vaccinate them and you return them to your property where hopefully you will take care for them after you release them,” Lewis said.
Lewis agreed it truly was the best thing to do and so he dug into his own pockets to help keep the cats under control around his Juniper Street home. Then, last August, his neighbors began to complain.
“Someone on the block complained about cats running loose in the neighborhood,” Lewis said.
Roeland Park Animal Control slapped Lewis with a citation and hefty fine. According to city law, animals aren’t allowed to roam the streets of Roeland Park, but that doesn’t include feral cats. Still, Lewis was fined and a judge declared that these cats belonged to him.
“The Catch 22 is that once she suggested I was the owner of the cats, and then suggested I should stop feeding them or drop them off by the river. If I followed that advice, I would be guilty of animal cruelty by the Roeland Park Ordinance,” he said.
Since the ordinance doesn’t state a fine, Lewis is now scheduled to be back in court Friday and he said he plans to appeal the decision.
KCTV5 reached out to the judge to try to get some clarification on the feline fiasco, but she did not agree to comment.