Deja vu all over again: Are cat fences making a comeback at Beach City Road santuary?

Cats were once again on the Hilton Head Island town council’s agenda this Tuesday, following town staff’s review of potential solutions to tensions between residents of The Spa and a neighboring Beach City Road cat colony.

This renewed round of complaints aren’t the condominium complex’s first. From the aesthetics of the colony to concerns about cats wandering onto the complex’s property, town officials have been petitioned by The Spa’s residents at various points dating back to at least 2018 to handle the “nuisance animals,” according to a presentation given by Deputy Town Manager Josh Gruber.

Some of the solutions Gruber presented included specialized fencing to prevent cats from climbing out of the sanctuary and ultrasonic sound emitters to divert the animals back onto sanctuary grounds.

‘A rotating problem’

The sanctuary’s founder and the current president of All About Cats said the issue has now circled back to the earlier status quo, and suspect residents won’t be pleased until the sanctuary is wholly removed. The nonprofit had previously installed fencing designed to contain its cats, All About Cats founder Claudia Kennedy said, but management at The Spa asked the nonprofit to remove it.

“We put it up on our own initiative (around 2013),” Kennedy told The Island Packet Thursday. “No one asked us to put it up, but we thought it would be good to have all the cats in one place, and the cats, really, it’s very tough to contain them. ... It cost, I think, around $1,000 for 100 feet.”

In 2016, Kennedy said one of the board’s management asked if she could remove the fencing, as it interfered with the residents’ aesthetic enjoyment of the area. It was removed that year, she said. Later, the sanctuary was asked to remove netting that closed off the top of several cat pens on sanctuary grounds for similar reasons.

The previous fencing’s design include a hinged upper section of the fence that was intended to swing down when a cat’s weight rested on it, creating a barrier the cats wouldn’t be able to climb around. The idea, Kennedy said, came from a cat colony that formerly operated on Daufuskie Island, which Gruber mentioned in his report.

Kennedy said the design was ultimately ineffective, since the hinge often failed to activate properly.

“And now the fencing is coming back up again,” All About Cats president Sherree Capello said. “It’s just becoming a rotating problem.”

Beaufort County Animal Control is “exploring” potentially paying for the installation of new fencing around the sanctuary, Gruber said, and the Hilton Head Humane Association is acquiring specifications for the fencing previously used on Daufuskie Island.

The sanctuary is legally permitted to operate on its current parcel, Gruber said, having secured the necessary documents from Beaufort County. The permit comes with legal obligations to keep the animals reasonably contained, resolve complaints about animal conduct, and maintain records of each colony cat, complete with documentations they’ve been vaccinated, spayed or neutered.

Town staff also recommended a maximum number of cats allowed in the colony be established and a method for easy identification of sanctuary cats be created.

“At the end of the day, the law requires that the animals remain on the property,” Gruber said.

Animals that repeatedly leave the property, Gruber said, must be relocated to another of the 30 operating feral cat colonies in Beaufort County. County or town employees are permitted to enforce animal control regulations, since Hilton Head has adopted the county-level ordinance.

The sanctuary’s operators argue that the “nuisance cats” residents of The Spa are organizing against don’t frequent the sanctuary at all, but are the remainder of a feral population that gathered at The Spa to take advantage of outdoor feeding stations that were removed in 2018.

“We as an organization are trying to keep the population down, I’m more than happy to help them out with their cat issue, but they will not allow us,” Capello said. “If they want to do it (put up anti-cat fencing), because they’re the ones with the problem, then they should also do it.”

LMO changes could affect sanctuary’s future

The question of whether operating a cat colony next to a residential area was posed by Ward 3 Councilman David Ames as the town continues lengthy modification of its land management ordinance.

“I do think there is an LMO (land management ordinance) issue with incompatibility,” Ames said. “To have a feral cat sanctuary right next to a single family house or condominium complex is probably not an ideal circumstance.”

Ward 2 Councilwoman Patsy Brison remarked the situation has added another footnote for consideration as town officials rework the island’s land plan.

A potential change could lead to the eventual removal of the colony from the area.

“The problem here is they want to run me off the property. The cats are not the issue, they’re just what’s being discussed,” Kennedy said.