Please let Frederick County Council Members know that the Code of Ordinances, Chapter 1-5: Animals and Fowl doesn’t reflect modern knowledge or best practices in dealing with community cats. Outdated laws waste taxpayer money and cost healthy cats their lives at the shelter. Amending ordinances related to ownership, licensing, leash/at-large and abandonment laws eliminates obstacles to TNR. Requiring caretakers to meet the same legal requirements of owners of pet cats can be counter-productive to TNR. Requiring free-roaming cats to be licensed place an undue financial and administrative burden on citizens already volunteering their time and resources to care for the cats. Almost all feral cats are already at-large when efforts to implement TNR begin, so making colony caretakers responsible for confining them makes little sense if the community wants volunteers to participate in the TNR program. TNR can best succeed when laws do not deter caretaker involvement. Speak up for cats and your community!