No Easy Answers on Feral Cats, Say Easton Officials.

Feral cats may be a problem in Easton, but there's no easy solution for dealing with them, city officials said Tuesday.

Councilman Jeff Warren commission after getting complaints from residents about stray cats in their neighborhood. He worries about the cats creating a health hazard.

Council members say it's an issue in every part of the city, but were cool to Warren's initial suggestion: an ordinance prohibiting people from feeding stray cats. Warren agrred that it would be difficult to enforce.

"We have signs down at the park, 'Don’t feed the geese,'" said city administrator Glenn Steckman. "But every Sunday, you'll probably be able to go down there, and find people feeding the geese."

At the very least, enforcing the law could be a public relations mess, suggested Vice Mayor Elinor Warner.

"There's also the visual of some old women handing out a treat to a kitty, then a cop comes and fines her," she said.

At one time, the city used a trap-neuter-release program through the local animal shelter, which has since been discontinued due to a lack of funding. The Center for Animal Health and Welfare is a no-kill shelter, which there's less space to put strays from the city.

The solution, council members say, could be to encourage people to not feed stray cats, while also finding a way to develop more spay neutering program.

"To nip it in the bud, you would have needed to nip it 50 years ago," Warner said.