{"id":30151,"date":"2025-10-14T05:29:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T09:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=30151"},"modified":"2025-10-14T05:29:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T09:29:47","slug":"cat-problems-in-decatur-aired-at-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/14\/cat-problems-in-decatur-aired-at-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Cat problems in Decatur aired at council"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Decatur has a cat problem. Hardly a revelation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The situation was raised at the tail-end of a recent meeting of Decatur City Council by local resident Erica Dyer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She claimed that \u201canother\u201d cat had been shot and killed on Schirmeyer St. that afternoon \u2026 \u201cand with kids around.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dyer said she was \u201cexpressing the frustrations of many\u201d over the cats problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"474\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Erica-Dyer.jpg?resize=640%2C474&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-30152\" style=\"width:463px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Erica-Dyer.jpg?w=754&amp;ssl=1 754w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Erica-Dyer.jpg?resize=300%2C222&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Decatur resident Erica Dyer expresses her frustration about the situation regarding feral cats in the city of Decatur. (Photo by Bob Shraluka)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>She said she feeds several feral cats and over time has had seven of them neutered ($175) or spayed ($200) at her expense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>People who feed the cats \u201cdon&#8217;t want those animals to starve,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are just trying to find out what the city can do,\u201d Dyer added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She was told by Mayor Dan Rickord to \u201cget on the agenda\u201d for a future meeting so the issue can be discussed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After the meeting, Dyer, who resides in the area of Fifth and Walnut streets, and Kim Vickers, Schirmeyer St. resident, talked about some of the problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They said BB and\/or pellet guns are being used on cats in their areas and a number have come up missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey taking them somewhere else and dumping them,\u201d Vickers claimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vickers, who said she has had up to 30 cats \u201cfixed\u201d over the last three or so years, pointed out that she owns five lots on Schirmeyer and numerous cats live on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many other Decatur residents see the \u201ccat problem\u201d in a different light, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One city official said numerous complaints are received about cats running lose in neighborhoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSome people are trying to help the cats by feeding them,\u201d the official said. \u201cBut then the cat goes over in the neighbor&#8217;s yard and dumps.\u201d<br>And it&#8217;s no secret that feral cats can be aggressive, to other animals and to certain areas around a home, etc..<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A city official said it has been estimated that as many as 3,000 cats are running loose in the city. That is not, however, any type of an official estimate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com Decatur has a cat problem. Hardly a revelation. The situation was raised at the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,15,21],"class_list":["post-30151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-decatur","tag-featured","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30151"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30153,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30151\/revisions\/30153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}