Straying from controversy – UI task force investigates animal trapping and euthanasia on campus

Controversy broke out at the beginning of the semester when it was revealed that the University of Idaho campus veterinarian authorized the euthanasia of seven cats on campus.

Thousands of members of the Moscow community and others signed a petition to stop this practice. Instead, people wanted the stray animals to be taken to a Humane Society or set free in a barn or an off-campus area.

To avoid repeating history, UI President Chuck Staben assembled a task force of experts in animal control and policy in early September, said Jodi Walker, director of communications.

“That group has met several times in the past month,” Walker said. “To review any sort of non-research animal control. Review what we’re doing and what we can do better to benefit in a learning environment.”

Research practices evolve constantly and policies become outdated, so it is good to review and update them in an intrinsic way, Walker said.

UI acquiesced and released email logs about animal control practices as public records. Walker said the populace has the legal privilege to view the emails. The emails indicated there were trappings of multiple birds on campus, including 1,100 starlings, 149 sparrows and 75 pigeons since this spring.

“Birds can carry diseases that can be passed to cows. So, that’s the concern there,” Walker said. “Starlings tend to be a common bird — not just on campus — around the region.”

These types of trappings can occur to prevent birds from pecking off animal feed and passing diseases to humans as well, she said.

Miscommunication ensued between the Humane Society of the Palouse (HSOP) and UI. University employees had requested HSOP take several feral cats.

“They said that they called us back in the early part of the summer, but … nobody remembers talking to (them),” said Autumn St. Amand, executive director of HSOP.

At HSOP, they receive many callers, volunteers and visitors on a daily basis, St. Amand said. If the employees in question didn’t know it was someone at the university calling, she said then they likely would have refused to take the feral cats into their facilities.

“But if they had said, ‘Hey, we’re U of I, we have feral cats,’ then we could’ve said, ‘Oh, OK. Let’s try and figure something out,’” St. Amand said.

She said HSOP sometimes takes in feral animals for testing, but if the animal poses a danger to the staff, they draw the line.

There is a program called Trap Neuter and Release (TNR) that many campuses use for such cases, St. Amand said. The program creates a community network that helps to  prevent the killing of animals unless it is absolutely necessary.

St. Amand said that while the university was trying to find a place for these feral cats, farm centers on campus were asking HSOP for felines.

“We’ve actually gotten several calls in previous years and earlier in the summer from the barns on campus who actually were looking for barn cats … to hunt mice,” St. Amand said. “So, it doesn’t sound like the rest of the department knew that. So while (UI centers) were looking for cats from us, other cats were getting trapped and euthanized.”

Without medical details, it is hard to evaluate the alternatives to euthanasia, she said. One factor is clear — St. Amand said if the university, or even the community, communicated better about similar issues in the future, it would bring together a collusion of people to help each other out.

Staben will review policies and communication procedures pertaining to non-research animal control later in October, Walker said.

“This is an important issue to us. It is very emotional,” Walker said. “I would hope that everyone — student, faculty, staff and community members — would recognize that the recommendations coming out of the task force are intended to provide the best possible outcome for everyone involved.”

The campus veterinarian did not wish to comment on this issue.

Catherine Keenan can be reached at [email protected]