In session Tuesday morning, June 22, the Brownwood City Council unanimously approved a “memorandum of understanding” between the City and Brownwood TNR (trap-neuter-return) regarding the cat colony located at Riverside Park.

On June 17, Tami Rogers with Brownwood TNR, Mayor Stephen Haynes, and City Manager Emily Crawford met to discuss TNR, low cost spay and neuter, and the cat colony in Riverside Park. The group attempted to craft a proposal that would satisfy the most important issues for Brownwood TNR and the City regarding the cat colony.

“I think this is a good middle ground for the City and for Brownwood TNR,” Crawford said following Tuesday’s meeting. “I believe we’ve made some good progress with the Riverside cat subject because we were able to work with Brownwood TNR directly to come up with I think a situation that continues their efforts to keep the Riverside cat colonies healthy and provides them with the place they’re accustomed to living, as well as keeps the cats from being primarily in the park area, which is the pavilion area and the playground, which is where we were getting the most complaints.”

The following agreement was provided to the City Council:

Brownwood TNR will:

1. Move the cat colony in Riverside Park farther away from the park area to City-owned property outside of the park. Brownwood TNR may take up to six months to gradually move the feeding station to the new location. A map depicting the general location where the feeding stating will be moved is attached.
2. Stop organized feeding at the former cat colony locations in the park.
3. Maintain the cat colony to 25 cats or less. All cats will be spayed/neutered and vaccinated.
4. Re-home any additional cats over the 25 through adoption, rescue, or the barn cat program.
5. Keep records on the cats to determine if the colony is static or if new cats are coming in.
6. Seek to achieve colony reduction on an annual basis through attrition with a goal of achieving 20% attrition annually.
7. Report to the city council semi-annually on the progress of maintaining and reducing the size of the colony.

The City of Brownwood will:

1. Make access to the feeding area accessible off of Market Drive Blvd. for TNR volunteers.
2. Make efforts to prevent illegal animal dumping in Riverside Park and the cat colony by signage, public education, and trash management.
3. Enforce the illegal dumping ordinance and applicable fines if violators are reported and/or caught.
4. Encourage residents not to feed the cats in the park and refer them to Brownwood TNR should they desire to volunteer with their managed program.
5. Ask animal control to regularly monitor the park and remove 1) new cats that are not spayed/neutered or 2) cats found to be regularly in the playground or picnic areas of the Riverside Park.