500 signatures reached
To: County Commissioners of St Johns County and Animal Control, residents of St Johns County, Florida
Stop Catch and Kill of Community Cats in St Johns County Florida
Dear Residents of St Johns County, Florida:
Our coalition is fighting for community cats in our county. We seek a humane, sustainable, long-term solution to the overpopulation of Community Cats in St Johns County. We support and represent hundreds of volunteers as trappers, caregivers, transporters, animal organizations, neighbors and friends of these cats.
The current policy of Animal Control is “Catch and Kill”. These cats are picked up, housed and then euthanized. Since 2023 through October 2025 - 1,709 cats have been euthanized in St Johns County. 81 cats were euthanized just in the month of June this year. This number does not include owner surrenders and is provided through the state required shelter reports. This policy of “Catch and Kill” has been proven to be ineffective in controlling the overpopulation of community cats in numerous county, state, national and global studies.
The current policy of Animal Control is “Catch and Kill”. These cats are picked up, housed and then euthanized. Since 2023 through October 2025 - 1,709 cats have been euthanized in St Johns County. 81 cats were euthanized just in the month of June this year. This number does not include owner surrenders and is provided through the state required shelter reports. This policy of “Catch and Kill” has been proven to be ineffective in controlling the overpopulation of community cats in numerous county, state, national and global studies.
Members of our coalition have met and counseled with our Animal Control division several times this year. We provided low-cost to no-cost solutions through resources, partnership and grants to work together toward long term alternative answers to this issue. Our follow up action included meeting with several of our County Commissioners. Unfortunately, our requests have not been met with any interest. We ask that you sign this petition in support of those requests and share it with your like-minded friends who reside in St Johns County, Florida. Questions can be emailed to [email protected]
Why is this important?
1. Update of the 2017 St Johns County Animal Ordinance: We request the acknowledgment and definition of: Community cats, Feral cat colony caregivers, Efforts of our coalition to trap and sterilize them and SJC animal control officers’ commitment to partnering with us out in the field. This will help our effort in the community, clarify goals and reduce the often stated “fear factor” of Animal Control expressed by the caring folks and volunteers who trying to help. Again, we want humane, cost effective and sustainable solutions to the overpopulation of these cats.
2. Utilization of existing Animal Control Resources (such as the surgery facility) to Support these Efforts: The primary challenge for the volunteers in this community is the lack of available facilities to perform the specialized hi volume spay/neuter surgeries. Our county funded Animal Control surgery facility has never been utilized to assist in this community service. St Johns County citizens in this effort must travel to Flagler, Duval and Clay counties to get these cats sterilized. This increases costs for surgery as an out-of-county resident, transportation expenses to and from appointments, time and additional stress on the animals confined to traps.
We ask for your help by signing this petition and sharing it with your friends.
In addition, please email all of our St Johns County Commissioners in support of our efforts and requested changes to work toward ending the outdated, unsuccessful policy of “Catch and Kill” of community cats in our county. County Commissioner emails are listed below:
[email protected] Christian Whitehurst
[email protected] Christian Whitehurst
[email protected] Sarah Arnold
[email protected] Clay Murphy
[email protected] Krista Joseph