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Members of Buena Vista City Council have apparently undergone an attitude adjustment with regards to Mary Huffman’s cat caretaking activities at Glen Maury Park.
Just a few weeks after directing Huffman of Furever Friends to cease and desist from engaging in such activities, Council members are now embracing Huffman’s practices of feeding, sheltering, spaying and neutering and vaccinating the feral felines.
Council this past Thursday voted unanimously to pay $2,000, or half the costs, for a structure that would serve as a cat shelter and feeding station at the park. The wooden, 8-by-8- foot shelter is to be erected in the woods just off of a new path. Huffman is to pay for the other half of the costs.
Council is also having City Attorney Brian Kearney prepare a resolution of support for Huffman’s caretaking and TNR (trap, neuter/spay and release) activities at the park. The resolution is to be an agenda item at Council’s next meeting on Feb. 2.
At Council’s Jan. 5 meeting, Huffman and a roomful of her supporters took issue with Council for a Dec. 6 letter she received from the city directing her to cease her cat caretaking activities at the park and remove all items associated with those activities. Her supporters responded by telling Council members they should be commending, not condemning, Huffman’s efforts to care for the cats and control their population.
According to Huffman, the number of feral cats at the park has been reduced from 178 in 2014, when she commenced her activities, to just a dozen now. She said the remaining cats, while elderly, are healthy and relied upon to keep rodents out of the park’s facilities, which in turn also keeps out snakes.
Huffman’s supporters were back in force at Council’s most recent meeting on Thursday.
Huffman, said Cindi Jacobs of Lexington Pet Place, “is a damn good woman. … S he is a shining example of cat advocacy. She’s worked really hard to keep [the cats at the park] from being a problem.” Her pet store, Jacobs said, has worked with Huffman to get some of the cats adopted.
“Mary stepped up to the plate,” said Cathy DeMay of Cats Unlimited, an organization that has assisted Huffman and Furever Friends with their TNR activities.
Huffman said she trapped two new cats at the park just this past week. One is to become a barn cat out in the country and she’s looking for a home for the other one.
With TNR activities continuing at the park, City Manager Jason Tyree said efforts will be stepped up to halt the practice of dumping cats at the park. It is unlawful to abandon animals and cameras are in place to capture this illegal activity, he pointed out.
