Discussion on feral cats dominates Brownwood City Council meeting
Brownwood Bulletin
A discussion on dealing with Brownwood’s feral cat population particularly the colony of 20 to 25 at Riverside Park dominated the Brownwood City Council meeting Tuesday morning and included comments from numerous audience members.
“It came to our attention several months ago that we had people building structures inside our city parks for the cats, along with feeding the cats on a regular basis,” Mayor Stephen Haynes said in opening the discussion. Council members took no action following the two-hour discussion.
The city is getting “tons of complaints” about feral cats in Riverside and other parks, with issues including cat waste being deposited around the playground equipment, Haynes said.
Tami Rodgers addresses the Brownwood City Council Tuesday morning. [Photo by Derrick Stuckly]
The topic of feral cats was again brought before the Brownwood City Council during Tuesday’s meeting as Tami Rodgers with TNR Brownwood presented a petition regarding the cat colony in Riverside Park.
A more than two-hour discussion that drifted back and forth from the Riverside Park situation to the entire city itself occurred and featured multiple contentious moments.
Brownwood Mayor Stephen Haynes began the discussion by stating, “It came to our attention several months ago that we had people building structures inside our city parks for the cats, along with feeding the cats on a regular basis. We’re getting tons of complaints about the number of cats in our parks about feces in the playground equipment and other issues. We asked Tami to please help us remove the cats from the public parks and we believe that means remove housing and stop feeding the cats. No one has said or ma