"Herding cats" has become more than a metaphor for several West Seneca neighborhoods, where large numbers of invading felines have residents hissing at town officials for action.
A proposed local law limits to four the number of cats each household in town can keep.
The impetus for the restriction, said Supervisor Sheila M. Meegan, is numerous complaints from West Seneca residents in several parts of town that felines are having their way with their neighborhoods because of a few enabling humans.
"We need to help these residents," said Meegan at a recent Town Board work session. "The only way we can do this is to put in an ordinance."
The supervisor, at a work session last month, announced that her office had been inundated with callers pointing to eight property owners in town for providing food and refuge for large numbers of cats.
Neighbors said the cats repeatedly walked into neighboring yards and sunbathed on several neighbors' awnings. The animals were also said to be defecating on neighboring properties.
Among the streets named for having problems were Creekview Drive and Allendale Road. On Creekview, town officials noted, police were called to respond to a reported attempted poisoning of a resident's cat by a neighbor. On Allendale, a resident was harboring more than 20 cats, officials said.
In still another case, town officials reported having visited a house where a woman was keeping 35 cats.
"The cat thing is over the top this year," Meegan said.
The first step in a plan of action will occur at 7 p.m. Sept. 27, when Town Board members hold a public hearing to get residents' input on the proposed law.
The proposed law modifies the town code to restrict the number of cats to four, with additional requirements that the cats "shall be kept in an appropriate manner and under control in a clean, properly ventilated, wholesome sanitary condition and free from offensive odors."
The law also provides that "all accumulation or collection of manure and other refuse derived from the keeping of cats must be disposed of in an appropriate and sanitary manner."
West Seneca's problem "is not a new problem," said Gina Browning, spokeswoman for the SPCA Serving Erie County.
"This is in every neighborhood in Erie County," Browning said. "That's why the cat population is so bad."
Managing cats is more difficult than managing dogs, which are licensed. And residents may be more inclined to seek the owners of stray dogs as opposed to stray cats, Browning said.
People may think it's compassionate to feed and harbor such cats, said Browning, but they are just contributing to the cats' rapid proliferation.
"Well-meaning people are thinking with their hearts, not their heads," said Browning. "They're not thinking about the next step in responsibility."
That next step, Browning says, is spaying or neutering the animal and making sure it gets vaccinated.
"These are community cats," said Browning. "There has to be a community approach to control cats."

email: tpignataro@buffnews.com