Gonzales City Council approves agreement with Kingdom Rescue for cat shelter

The Gonzales City Council met for a special called meeting Monday, Dec. 18, regarding an agreement with Kingdom Rescue to run the city’s cat shelter.

Gonzales City Manager Tim Crow said the city had been in negotiations with Kingdom Rescue for more than a month and something that the city can do with local cat population.

“If things run according to how Kingdom Rescue has made their presentation, we should start seeing a reduction over time of feral cats, or — as this is also referred to  — community cats, in theory, so I look forward to working with Kingdom Rescue and helping to resolve these issues,” Crow said.

Residents of Gonzales are concerned about the cat situation in the city. Betty Bahn expressed her concern in the public comments.

“We have 50 cats on a cul-de-sac, which means that we are overrun with cats. The city tells us not to feed feral cats or stray cats, but yet there's an ordinance for cruelty to animals, so it's a little bit difficult when you look at the seriousness of the amount of cats,” Bahn said.

Bahn’s concern about the cat shelter is space and believes that is big problem, she said.

“The dog catcher or cat catcher is not able to come pick them up. We call, we say we have a cat we would love to get rid of and they don't have any room. They never have any room. So this is four months that we've been dealing with the same answer to this situation.” Bahn added.

The council approved the agreement in a 5-0 vote.

“The timeline that has been presented for making an impact on the numbers of cats in town is anywhere from three to five years, so I think it's pretty realistic on the part of Kingdom Rescue to say we have a plan, but it's going to take a while for our plan to really show and take effect,” Gonzales Mayor Steve Sucher said.

Kingdom Rescue takes over for Friends of the Gonzales Animal Shelter and the agreement goes into effect Jan. 1, 2024. They have a Facebook page set up under Gonzales Pet Adoption Center – GPAC.