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Population boom for feral cats in Williams
Mobile home park residents ask for city’s assistance

<br>Patrick Whitehurst/WGCN<br>
Area resident Tracey Cerami (standing) displays photographs of cats in the Kaibab Mobile Home Park in Williams. According to the park’s manager, Debbie Chavez, over 100 feral cats are currently inhabiting the area in and around the mobile home park.

<br>Patrick Whitehurst/WGCN<br> Area resident Tracey Cerami (standing) displays photographs of cats in the Kaibab Mobile Home Park in Williams. According to the park’s manager, Debbie Chavez, over 100 feral cats are currently inhabiting the area in and around the mobile home park.

Like Ernest Hemingway's estate in the Florida Keys, Williams is becoming known for the number of cats that can be seen in the streets and alleys of the community. Unlike Hemingway's estate, however, the cats in Williams have recently become a cause for concern among residents in the community. During the recent regular meeting of Williams City Council Aug. 28, a number of area residents were present to ask council members' help regarding the issue.

As the matter was brought to council members during the call to the public portion of the meeting, council members were unable to make a formal decision on the matter. They asked that the matter be officially placed on the agenda for discussion and decision for their next meeting Sept. 11.

Kaibab Mobile Home Park manager Debbie Chavez told council members that the park is currently experiencing high numbers in the feral cat population. Chavez asked council members for direction regarding the issue. According to her, there are over 100 wild cats in the area of the mobile home park alone.

"We have just run into wall after wall about these things and I have even been told by officers, people in town, that they have been told to leave the problem alone," Chavez said. "I don't know where to turn. There are at least 100 cats in the park. I've talked to Coconino Hospital in Flag, the animal hospital, and they said that disease can be spread to humans and your animals, even if your animals are well now. The thing that I have been told is that people, like WAAG, they want to come in and fix the cats and bring them back. That doesn't help. That is not an answer to the problem."

Williams resident John Lechtenberger was also on hand to support Chavez in her effort to remedy the feral cat problem at the mobile home park.

"It is encouraging to know that the city of Williams may begin to take the problem of roaming cats seriously and make an attempt to control them," Lechtenberger said. "As an example of the gravity of the problem, one evening just before closing, as my wife and I went through the drive-thru at McDonalds here in Williams. As we were waiting to leave, we observed about a half dozen cats in the weeds in the field just west of McDonalds.

"Now, for those of us who watch 'Animal Planet,' the fact that cats can reproduce rather quickly is a known fact. One breeding pair of cats can produce literally thousands of breeding cats in just a few years. One breeding pair that is not controlled in our community is a cruel danger for the animals and a potential danger for humans as well. With increased danger from animal bites ands scratches and diseases, such as rabies, every incorporated community in the United States ought to be primarily concerned with the safety and well being of its citizens. That having been said, the city of Williams ought to move quickly to capture, spay and neuter, and find homes for any feral cats. In our city, the canine population is fairly well controlled to Williams' credit. Certainly we ought to be able to do as well with the feline population. The local residents expect it and our many visitors from around the world expect the same."

Area resident Tracey Cerami also spoke to council members concerning the condition of the feral cats in the mobile home park.

"As Debbie said, there are tons of cats. If you have driven through there lately, it's frightening how many there are. They're in really horrible condition," Cerami said, adding that she was attending the meeting to represent a mobile home park tenant who was too afraid to speak, out of fear of retribution from park officials.

"That is why this person isn't here," Cerami said. "It's kind of two-fold. The person that I am here speaking for tonight; it's just kind of breaking her heart. She has been told that she has to ignore them. They're starving, you can see they're starving, they're in horrible condition. There was even one kitten that kept eating (a) cigarette butt and she had to keep taking it out of the kitten's mouth, handing it a little food and looking around to make sure no one saw her doing it, because they have been threatened that they're going to be evicted and this is why this person didn't want to come here and speak. I am speaking on her behalf. She's got to live there. What's troubling her is the condition of the cats and that something bad is going on, as far as poisoning as opposed to trapping to spaying and neutering to cut down on the population. I don't want to see that happen. There's no reason to harm these cats to this degree."

Cerami displayed a number of photographs that she said showed suffering cats, such as a particular cat that she said looked as though it had eaten some form of poison. She said poisoning the animals is not a way to solve the problem of feral cats.

"I don't live there, so I don't know exactly what's happening, but I have driven through there and was floored at the enormity of the cat population there," Cerami said. "You've got cats now that are blind (and) can't hunt for themselves."

One park resident, on hand for the meeting, said that, due to fesces, there are currently an "unbelievable" number of flies in the area.


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