The feral cat caregivers who live on East Main Street are scheduled to appear before the city’s Zoning Hearing Board at 7 p.m. today to request a variance for a cat fence on their property.

“I assume that means they didn’t get an agreement with the city,” said city solicitor Mark Hollenbeck, referring to Ron and Cathy Langella and Siglinde Vanderhorst, the city residents cited for creating a public nuisance by feeding feral cats on East Main Street and Lincoln Avenue.

Hollenbeck said the city Board of Health had met in July and presented a proposal to Ron Langella, attorney for the caregivers, who were given 14 days to abate the feral cat nuisance on their properties.

“We’ve passed the 14 days,” Hollenbeck said. He added that Langella has filed an appeal of the Board of Health’s order with the McKean County Court of Common Pleas.

In the meantime, Hollenbeck said, he is aware that neighbors in the area have been trapping stray cats on their properties.

Teri Cannon, assistant to City Clerk John Peterson, who was out of the office, said Tuesday that all 20 of the traps the city has available for loan are being used at the present time.

“Since the onset of the feral cat issue on East Main Street, we’ve had a lot more requests,” she said. Most of the traps went out at the beginning of last week, Cannon said.

Cathy Langella said she had heard a rumor that her neighbors were trapping the cats.

“They have begun to trap the cats we’ve been caring for,” she said. “I thought we had agreed we’d be able to continue caring for the cats.”

The couple had established a colony of about 15 feral cats at their residence on East Main Street. The cats had all been spayed or neutered and were all given rabies vaccinations. The treated cats were distinguishable by a mark on their ear.

However, now only one cat in the colony remains, Langella said.

“It is now ten times worse than it ever would have been,” she said. The remaining cats are not spayed or neutered and the population has “exploded.”

Regarding the Board of Health’s proposal regarding abatement at their home, Langella said it was rejected for several reasons. “They wanted us to jump through too many hoops. They wanted to be able to come and monitor us and count the number of cats we’d be caring for.”

The couple found it unacceptable and is appealing the Board’s ruling, she said. “We just said no. I believe what I am doing is a decent thing and the right thing,” she added.

And today’s hearing before the Zoning Hearing Board is actually a different route than what had been sought before, Langella explained. This is not because of any agreement with the Board of Health, but is an action the caregivers are taking of their own accord, she said.

“We have made the application for a permit to put the fence up,” she said. “We have found some really great fencing on-line.”

This fencing — an improvement over what the couple intended to put up before negotiations with the city stalled — is see-through and is seven-and-a-half feet high.

“The top curves in at almost a 90 degree angle,” Langella said, explaining it is designed to be impossible for cats to escape from.

She said she believes the reason the project must go before the Zoning Hearing Board is because of the height of the fence.

“We would have to put up gates to be able access our yard and our driveway,” Langella explained.

She added the cost will be about $7,000 for installing the fence, and she’s hoping to get help from some volunteers for the actual installation. “Ron and I don’t have a clue on that kind of thing.”

She added that the neighbors’ actions trapping the cats have caused the problems of the massive feral cat resurgence in the neighborhood.

“I have now in my house approximately 50 (cats) because (the population) just totally exploded because of what my neighbors had done,” Langella said.

When the Langellas’ stable colony of spayed and neutered cats was destroyed, she said, it left a vacancy for more feral cats to move in — and have kittens, perpetuating the cycle. More cats that the couple cannot afford to care for, Langella said.

She explained that since her husband’s near-fatal heart attack in December, they can no longer afford the added expense of having the feral cats spayed and neutered. They’ve brought kittens into their home to domesticate in an attempt to get the population under control.

“We’re spending about $300 a week now to feed them and for their medicines,” she said. “I can’t afford it, but I don’t care. I spend about four or five hours a day cleaning my house on top of what I am doing.”

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