The Village of South Jacksonville has a hairball of a mess on its hands.
Two residents from the 1400 block of South Church Street brought complaints about one neighbor’s cats destroying the neighborhood. One complainant said that they were allergic to cats and the cats were marking things on their property and leaving feces all over their yard. They said that the neighbor’s address, which is on Havendale Court, has refused to remain in compliance with the village’s ordinance limiting the number of animals you can have. The complainants said that the Havendale Court neighbor acts “entitled” and appears to be “above the law” when it comes to her more than a dozen cats roaming throughout the neighborhood. One of the speakers said that the neighbor has retrieved their cats out of live traps on other people’s private property.
Both residents praised the village’s code enforcement officer Cindy Beddingfield for her efforts to bring the problem under control despite being unable to solve the problem.
Village President Dick Samples says that Morgan County Animal Control is currently overwhelmed to help with the problem: “We secure the services of Morgan County Animal Control, and they should be handling this issue. But there is such an abundance of cats, I think they are overwhelmed, too. There are several places within the village that residents have more than 6 animals. That’s all we allow through ordinance – 3 cats, 3 dogs or a mixture. We are going to get on this problem.”
Samples says that possible citations will be the next step in the compliance process either for dereliction of ownership duties or violation of the pet ownership ordinance, which would then put the resident in the municipal court system.
The residents in attendance said that many neighbors have been trying to capture the cats via live traps to take them to animal control, but said that animal control would then release them back to the Havendale Court owner.
One of the complainants said that many of the cats are in search of food and often leave carcasses of birds and rodents in other neighbors’ yards.
Samples told those in attendance he would see to the matter personally.