After an abrupt pause last month, Pittsburgh is poised to restore some of the city’s free spay and neutering services. On Tuesday, City Council unanimously approved a new $210,000 contract that would extend the services for city residents who bring in feral cats.
The initiative was halted last month when officials said the program was being abused by pet owners in nearby suburbs. In a release, the city’s Bureau of Animal Care and Control said it found “individuals using the city addresses of friends and family members to bring in animals from outside city limits to take advantage of the service.”
City documents also show the previous contract with Humane Animal Rescue expired at the end of 2023.
The pause raised concerns among animal advocates, who noted that without the program, the city’s feral cat population could explode. Those misgivings were amplified by the fact that the feline mating season typically begins in February.
City Councilor Anthony Coghill said he’s heard those concerns loud and clear in his district.
“Everybody’s very happy that spay and neuter is going to be continued,” Coghill said during a committee meeting last week. “Feral cats have been a really big problem.”
Councilor Barb Warwick said Tuesday that in Hazelwood, there have been issues with so-called “animal hoarders” who keep more than a dozen pets and don’t plan for what happens to the animals if they can no longer take care of them.
She said cats left behind by deceased homeowners eventually make it out onto the street, and feral cat colonies emerge. Warwick said small organizations that try to manage feral cat populations use the city’s voucher program to trap and fix cats.
“They rely on the city’s program, so they’re happy to have it back,” she said.
Tuesday’s vote would restart the spay and neuter program through Humane Animal Rescue of Pittsburgh and Animal Friends until the end of 2024.
But for now, that only applies to feral cats.
The city plans to iron out a new program that would include domestic cats and dogs in the next six months, once it creates safeguards to prevent suburban pet owners from accessing the service.
During council’s committee meeting last week, Public Safety director Lee Schmidt said the new program would feature a more “thorough check” of an individual’s address, one that could require a signed document stating that the pet is theirs and they live in the city. The Bureau of Animal Care and Control may perform follow-up visits to check on the animal.
For dogs, the city plans to verify dog licenses to ensure the animal is properly registered, and living within the city.
Schmidt said the city also plans to adjust how it helps people who catch feral cats. A resident would have to register as a “trapper” to be able to catch feral cats, and then have them spayed or neutered with a voucher from the city before releasing them back into the wild.
Schmidt said this process would prevent people from trapping cats, having them fixed for free and then adopting them out for a fee at a shelter outside city limits.
The city has not set a timeline for when the no-cost spay and neuter program could resume for domestic pets.
