Catch 22 law punishes Kansas man for taking care of feral cats

ROELAND PARK, Kan. — A feline fuss is churning in a Johnson County neighborhood.

By definition, feral animals don't have an owner. But now a Roeland Park, Kansas, man is fighting the city over whether he should have to pay up for the wild cats on his property. He said trying to do the right thing has landed him in court, facing fines.

Steven Lewis has lived in his Roeland Park home for 20 years. In that time, he's dealt with dozens of feral cats roaming the neighborhood.

Lewis trapped a couple feral cats and turned them in to animal control last year. But because the cats were wild, animal control said there was nothing they could do with them.

"These are cats you can't find homes for. They're going to be nobody's pets," Lewis said.

He turned to Great Plains SPCA and the humane society for answers.

"Both of them said we don't want the feral cats. They said we recommend what we call Trap Neuter and Return. You trap the cats and bring them to us. We will neuter them, vaccinate them and you return them to your property where hopefully you will take care for them after you release them," Lewis said.

Lewis agreed it was the best thing to do, so he dug into his own pockets to help keep the cats under control around his Juniper Street home. Then, last August, neighbors started complaining.

"Someone on the block complained about cats running loose in the neighborhood," Lewis said.

Roeland Park Animal Control slapped Lewis with a citation and fine. According to city law, animals can't roam the streets of Roeland Park, but that doesn't include feral cats. Still, Lewis was fined and a judge declared him the owner of the cats.

"The Catch 22 is that once she suggested I was the owner of the cats, and then suggested I should stop feeding them or drop them off by the river. If I followed that advice, I would be guilty of animal cruelty by the Roeland Park Ordinance," he said.

Since the ordinance doesn't state a fine, Lewis is scheduled to be back in court Friday. He said he plans to appeal the decision.

KCTV5 reached out to the judge to try to get some clarification on the feline fiasco, but she declined to comment.