The Assembly is once again planning to address unleashed dogs, and I wish them the best. However, every time this issue comes up, I start humming the lyrics to the James Bland song lyrics: “Ev’ry time I come to town, the boys keep kickin’ my dawg aroun.’ " And I don’t even own a dog.
It’s been seven years since I wrote a comprehensive report — 130 pages! — comparing how Anchorage manages cats versus dogs. The report is “Animal Control in Anchorage, Alaska: Cats and Dogs Deserve Equal Treatment.” It was received with a collective yawn. But far more cats run free than dogs. Sure, dogs can be a problem. But so can cats. Animal Control says Anchorage has more pet cats than dogs. Based on Lower 48 estimates that didn’t include Alaska, I estimated the municipality has 30,000 additional unowned and stray cats, and cats kill as many as 7 million wild birds and mammals annually in Anchorage, using estimates derived from scientific studies.
Do you think those estimates are too high? One-tenth of those numbers is too many, whether it be dogs or cats. So when are we going to enforce the leash law for cats? Or, better yet, when are cat owners going to start being as responsible as dog owners?
— Rick Sinnott
Chugiak
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