{"id":15170,"date":"2023-11-16T04:27:58","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T09:27:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/?p=15170"},"modified":"2023-11-16T04:27:58","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T09:27:58","slug":"lavallette-to-expand-wildlife-feeding-ban-to-private-property","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/2023\/11\/lavallette-to-expand-wildlife-feeding-ban-to-private-property\/","title":{"rendered":"Lavallette to Expand Wildlife-Feeding Ban to Private Property"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A small feral cat tucked behind a recycling can on the front yard of a home on President Avenue, Lavallette, Aug. 24, 2022. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Lavallette officials introduced an ordinance this week that would expand the borough\u2019s prohibition on feeding wildlife to private property.<\/p>\n

The ordinance, introduced Monday night, is largely in response to the town\u2019s continued efforts to solve its feral cat issue. Volunteers have been credited with donating significant time putting together a \u201cTrap, Neuter, Release\u201d program in town, however those efforts can be interrupted when residents \u2013 even those well-intentioned \u2013 feed feral cats. Feeding other species can also cause issues.<\/p>\n

Lavallette already has an ordinance on the books banning the feeding of wildlife, however it only covers wildlife found \u201cin any public park, beach, place of resort or on any other property owned or operated by the Borough of Lavallette.\u201d It defined wildlife as \u201call animals that are neither human nor domesticated.\u201d<\/p>\n

The revised ordinance \u201cextends the ban to private property as well, and included in the types of wildlife are feral cats,\u201d said Borough Administrator John O. Bennett.<\/p>\n

The current code calls for violators to face fines of at least $100, but no more than $1,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did have an organization come out to help us with the [feral cat] problem, and they really have done a spectacular job,\u201d said Mayor Walter LaCicero. \u201cBut the feral cat clusters can sometimes be linked to the people with good intentions who feed the cats every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A small feral cat tucked behind a recycling can on the front yard of a home on President Avenue, Lavallette, Aug. 24, 2022. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

The feral cat issue was centered around President Avenue at its height two summers ago. While TNR programs have been credited with tamping down the problem significantly, Lavallette\u2019s seasonal population means volunteers can be hard to come by in the winter months. Members of neighboring Brick Township\u2019s TNR program have been contributing time and funds to help Lavallette. But sadly, at the end of each summer, it is found that some visitors leave their pets, particularly cats, behind when they leave. Others escape on their own and join the feral population.<\/p>\n

A public hearing and second vote is required before the ordinance is formally adopted. That is scheduled to take place at the council\u2019s next meeting, set for Dec. 4, 2023.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lavallette officials introduced an ordinance this week that would expand the borough\u2019s prohibition on feeding wildlife to private property. The ordinance, introduced Monday night, is largely in response to the town\u2019s continued efforts to solve its feral cat issue. Volunteers have been credited with donating significant time putting together a \u201cTrap, Neuter, Release\u201d program in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[1959,556,29,2001,2587],"class_list":["post-15170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lavallette-government","category-lavallette","tag-featured","tag-feral-cats","tag-lavallette-nj-news","tag-wildlife-feeding","tag-wildlife-ordinance"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/DJI_0228.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgsn9q-3WG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}