Does Wichita need a leash law for cats? A city board is considering it

A city board is considering a leash law for Wichita cats to reduce the number of felines running wild.

Wichita Animal Control Advisory Board member Richard Ruth has proposed a city ordinance change that would make it illegal to let a cat roam the neighborhood, with penalties including a fine and sterilizing and microchipping the cat.

The proposal also would limit the number of cats a person can own at four and require owners to annually license their cats and vaccinate against rabies.

Ruth’s proposal would put the same restrictions on cats that currently exist for dogs.

That would mean having to be kept indoors, on a leash or tether, or otherwise restricted to the owner’s property or other designated pet areas.

While dogs can simply be fenced in, confining a cat to property lines is more challenging because they are prodigious fence-climbers.

Under Ruth’s proposal, letting the cat out would probably mean putting it in a “catio,” a kind of mesh tent or cage specifically designed for cat confinement, he said.

Ruth said he expected blowback on the proposal because cat-rescue activists and some board members are opposed to any restriction on owned outdoor cats.

“I refer to them as Al-Cata, because they are unwavering in their commitment to seeing cats have a legally protected designation of wild and free,” Ruth said. “That seems to be their ultimate goal, which of course is not good for the environment and is not good for the common house cat. It’s not good for anyone.”

Ruth said he expects the proposed ordinance would likely be enforced only when residents complain about neighbors’ cats causing annoyance and/or property damage.

“More than one neighbor approached me about this proposal,” Ruth said. “At their urging I did it, hopefully as a way of starting an intelligent and civil conversation about what we can do about the causes of homeless pets, homeless cats.”

Ruth’s proposal touched off a storm of social media outrage from cat lovers and advocates.

Friends of Feral Felines of Kansas, a Trap-Neuter-Return advocacy group, has been leading the charge against the cat leash law.

“Do you let your pet cat outside to enjoy the weather?? That may soon become illegal!!” the group posted on its Facebook page, a post shared over 130 times as of Thursday morning.

“CATS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED OUTSIDE without being on a leash or confined in a catio!! ... This will also jeopardize the feral community since the ordinance makes no designation between feral cats and pet cats,” the post continues.

Even dog groups spoke out against the proposal.

“Cats aren’t meant to be on leashes nor do humans own cats as we all know,” wrote Dog Obedience, Guidance & Support, a dog training business that serves south Wichita, Derby, Haysville, Mulvane and Clearwater.

Wichita police Lt. Santiago Hungria, director of animal services for the city, said, “there is a feral cat problem” in Wichita, but it’s difficult to gather data and distinguish wild felines from pet cats.

Hungria said Wichita police respond to more calls about dogs than cats — dog bites, dogs running the streets, dogs tied to trees, dogs tethered and left too long.

“That consumes more of our day than cat issues,” he said.

Ruth said Wichita’s cat problem is more about public health and environment than public safety. While cats are much less likely than dogs to attack a human, they’re far more successful at killing birds, rodents, insects, squirrels and other small animals.

Getting a grip on the city’s stray and feral cat population is more urgent than ever as city and county government consider adopting a Food System Master Plan that seeks to encourage more residents of the city and county to grow food in community gardens or urban farms, for personal use and to sell at a farmer’s market, Ruth said.

“How are they (urban gardens) going to be impacted if we have at-large cats running through their produce, defecating, urinating?” Ruth said. “It’s a health concern.”

Ruth said the Animal Control Advisory Board’s recommended change in cat laws is aimed at dropping the number of pet cats that end up in the wild before passing a trap-neuter-release ordinance to contain the feral cat population.

“If we don’t have some way of saying, ‘Hey, this is a good way to be a pet owner, and this is how you have to take care of your pet, if we don’t ever do that, we will never get anywhere with TNR at all, ever,” said Mike Marlett, a member of the Animal Control Advisory Board.

Any changes to the city code of ordinances would require approval by the Wichita City Council. The Animal Control Advisory Board members said they hope to hold a town hall meeting in the future to generate more ideas about what cat laws would be acceptable to the broader public.

This story was originally published March 17, 2021 at 3:52 PM.