ASHLAND — Although some of her neighbors may disagree, Brenda Brown insists that she does not hate cats — she just doesn’t like cats leaving their droppings on her carport, and when the cats that live in her neighborhood damage her property, she thinks the owners of those cats should be held responsible.

“I love animals,” said Brown, who lives on Beech Street near the Beech Street Christian Church. “While we don’t have a pet now, we have had them and loved them. However, I think there is a responsibility that comes with owning a pet.”

Brown says she has battled with a “huge cat problem since August 2008,” and it has not improved much despite what she calls some excellent cooperation from the Ashland animal control officers.

Ashland Director of Public Works Marion Russell agrees that Brown has a cat problem and that some of the felines that have been visiting her property are unlike any cats he has ever known.

As most people know, cats prefer to use mulch piles or sandy areas when nature calls and, for the most part, they cover up their droppings when finished. But cats have been regularly leaving their droppings on Brown’s concrete carport, where it is impossible to cover them.

“She definitely has some unusual cats in her neighborhood,” Russell said. “I don’t know why they insist on going on her carport. It’s a mystery to me.”

Animal control has set traps on Brown’s carport to catch the wandering cats, and when a cat is caught in a trap, it is taken to the Boyd County Animal Center, where the owner must pay a fee to retrieve their cat.

While one trap remains on her carport, Brown said the cats in her neighborhood have learned not to enter the traps no matter how tempting the tuna used as bait may be. She also says people in the neighborhood have freed captured cats from the traps before animal control could arrive and also have sprung the doors on the traps.

“I think if you go onto someone else’s property to free cats from traps or to close the doors on traps, you are trespassing,” Brown said. “If kids are doing it, they need to be told be their parents that they are breaking the law.”

Cats also have been filmed by cameras set up by animal control on Brown’s carport. The owners of some of those cats are known, but animal control officers say they cannot seize those cats.

“Why not?” Brown asks. “They can pick up dogs that run free on the streets, so why not cats?”

Russell said Brown is not the only Ashland resident plagued by unwanted cats, and he points to three major causes of the city’s “cat problem.”

One is that there are an estimated 800 “feral cats” that are mostly wild and for which no one claims ownership.

“They say that there are 800 feral cats in Ashland, but how do they know that?” asks Ashland City Commissioner Kevin Gunderson. “How can they count how many feral cats there are, and if there are that many feral cats in the city, how many domestic cats are there?”

Another cause of the city’s cat problem is irresponsible pet owners who allow their cats to roam freely, Russell said. That has led to at least some of Brown’s cat woes, he said.

While the city does not have a “leash law” for cats like it does dogs and it does not require licenses for cats, it does require owners to accept responsibility for their cats and it requires that all domestic cats in the city be vaccinated.

Gunderson said while some senior city staff members have advocated a leash law for cats, he called such a requirement “too much social engineering.”

Brown said she also recognizes that cats are more difficult to confine than dogs and that a leash law for cats would not be practical. Instead, she says she wants to city to add some teeth to its current animal ordinances.

For example, she said the current fine for the first offense of allowing a pet to run freely and for having a pet damage property is $10.

“A $10 fine is ridiculous,” Brown said. “People pay it without blinking and continue to be irresponsible pet owners. I think the fine for the first offense needs to be much larger.”

A third cause of the city’s cat problem, Russell said, is that too many residents of the city feed stray cats.

“They think they are being kind to the animals and do it out of the goodness of their hearts, but really it just adds to the problem of stray cats and dogs,” Russell said of feeding stray animals.

Looking for answers

Before proposing any changes in the current animal control ordinances, Russell said he is asking other cities for their ordinances regarding pets. “Maybe we can learn something that has worked in other communities that we can implement here,” he said.

City Commissioner Cheryl Spriggs said Ashland’s cat problem is also a potential public health problem. She said she responded to one complaint from a constituent about a house where “cats were going in and out like crazy through an open window.”

While she said she is not opposed to increasing the fines for violations of the city’s animal control ordinance, the problem is “too many people won’t own up to owning a dog or cat. You can’t fine someone if you can’t determine the owner.”

Brown said she has been told that many people do not pay the fines that are assessed. “What’s the use of fining someone if nothing is going to happen if it is not paid?” she asks.

Both Gunderson and Spriggs say the ultimate solution to the city’s problems with unwanted and stray pets is an effective spay and neutering program.

“Unfortunately, the best solution is also the most expensive one,” Gunderson said. However, he said the animal control center charges only $50 to have a pet spayed or neutered “and that’s quite reasonable and part of being a responsible pet owner.”

While spaying and neutering may be the long-term solution to the city’s problem with unwanted pets, Brown said something more needs to be done to help her in her current battle with cats.

“How would you like to spend every waking day wondering whether you and your 5-year-old son can safely get to your car without stepping in or smelling or running over” cat droppings? She asked in a letter to city commissioners. “I guarantee that you would not like it and would try to do everything within your power to do something about it,” she wrote.

Brown admits that her efforts have not made her the most popular person with some of her neighbors, but she said her intention is not to keep anyone from owning cats. She just wants them to be responsible pet owners.