Beyond Good Cop/Bad Cop: This Police Officer is Serious About Helping Cats
Many media stories involving police officers and animals are disturbing. For example, in January a police officer in Bloomfield, Neb. shot and killed a trapped pet cat named Larry (Alley Cat Allies is demanding an investigation and justice for Larry).
The media doesn’t often report on the compassionate police officers who go out of their way to help animals (well, except when the Internet exploded over the Baltimore police officer who saved a kitten and won everyone’s hearts). But they’re out thereand it’s more than just the typical cop-rescuing-a-cat-from-a-tree tale.
Police Aide Mary Seroka with the Scottsdale Police Department in Arizona works hard to save animals’ lives. When the Scottsdale Police Department received complaints about three feral cat colonies, Seroka set an example for her community and committed to Trap-Neuter-Return all the cats. Within four weeks, she had trapped 147 cats. We asked Seroka about her experiences.
Is Trap-Neuter-Return the policy is Scottsdale?
No. Animal control will not do anything with feral cats. They won’t come out. Cats are free roaming. There are no laws against [Trap-Neuter-Return]. We step in, mainly, because people start calling saying that there are a lot of cats, and because people don’t understand TNR.
How do your colleagues feel about you doing TNR?
Everybody knows that I’m an animal lover. Any time they find an injured animal, they always call me. Whenever there’s a cat issue, my commander will send it to me.
Tell us about your own colony.
I have four who live in my back yard. A Siamese called Momma Kitty, because she was the beginning. Then I have one of her offspring, a female, and I call her Syrette. I have a black one, Beauty. Then I have a big old tomcat. He’s a scrapper, and missing teeth on one side, and he kind of looks like Popeye, so I call him Popeye. He decided that he trusted me, now I’m his best friend. He follows me around the back yard.
How do you see yourself changing Scottsdale for cats?
I’m just trying to educate people. I’ve got some flyers that I’ve given to the officers to put on doors and people’s houses where there are cat issues. It doesn’t have to be a big problem. You can get it under control. For $25 you can get one cat fixed, then you’re not going to have 50 cats. So, I try to educate people that if you stop it in the beginning, you’re not going to have the cat issues that people call about. Education is a big thing.