A cat fight may be brewing in La Salle County.

Thursday afternoon, at the first meeting of the new Public Safety II Committee, which oversees animal control, Chairman Randy Freeman, R-Lostant, made clear his opposition to a proposal to require registration tags for felines.

His views were questioned by Sandi Billiard, R-Oglesby, who favors registration for cats that are "companion pets."

Freeman identified himself as a cat lover who currently has nine rescued cats in his home "that never go outside.

"They are house cats and this is where I have a little bit of a problem when we start talking about fees."

Freeman said the county's focus should be on feral cats. He recommended the county work with the Sterile Feral Foundation of Bloomington, which offers a one-day turnaround trap, neuter and release service for stray and wild cats.

"Some of the pet organizations are unhappy with how they handle things, but I think what they do is a service..."

"So when you talk about licensing and doing things with cats there's a whole lot of cats that are going to end up out in the street that nobody's going to know who they belong to,"he said. "You start saying you're going to license every cat in the county, all of a sudden instead of 100 cats in the neighborhood there's going to be 500, because people are not going to pay for a cat license or tag. They're not going to do it."

The real effort, he repeatedly said, should be to curb the reproduction of feral cats.

Freeman said he and his wife have averaged placement of 40 to 50 kittens per year from feral cats.

"They tend to attract to our house because we feed them."

He said after the kittens are born in his garage, they are placed with owners who promise to have them sterilized and keep indoors.

Kelly Reffert, D-La Salle, said she agreed with Freeman, but Billard did not.

"I think what you're getting to is the distinction between companion animals versus feral," Billard said.

"For every reason that you register a dog as a companion pet, the same reasons must apply to companion pets that are cats. I don't see a difference with companion pets whether it's a dog or a cat... I don't think there should be a discrimination or a preference."

Dr. Dell Brodd, the county animal control administrator, said one difference is dogs are by far a larger problem than cats concerning bites.

But, he noted, half of the strays the county picks up are cats, making control a valid concern.

"It is probably unfair that all the fees go on dogs, when cats are a large portion of the problem," Brodd said.

Freeman said it was unfair to "beat up on people who are not causing the problem."

Arratta Znaniecki, R-Ottawa, noted Winnebago County, in its first cat registration program this year, tagged 14,000 cats. Winnebago County has about 2.5 times the human population of La Salle County.

Freeman also called for the creation of a private county humane society.

"Most large counties have an active humane society. I think that organization could be the linchpin of pulling a lot of things together in the county,"he said.

"I want to invite one or more of the humane societies in to one of our meetings."

He said he wanted to arrange a visit from a representative of the humane society located in McLean County.

"An organization like that could be useful and helpful in how we meet a lot of the goals we want to go after...

"Right now we've got the pet shelters and it's kind of mix and match. I think we need somebody in the private sector that can come in here and organize that end of it."

Additionally, there was discussion of looking into the purchase of the former Canine Associates facility at 2029 U.S. 34 near Leland by the county.

The former guard dog training facility was suggested at the former Animal Control Committee's meeting last month by Ken Stockley, R-Earlville, as a possible county dog pound.

Znaniecki had driven out to look at the facility from the outside and took photos she provided to Freeman, who forgot to bring them to the meeting.

Freeman said he did not believe the facility, listed for sale at $500,000, was something the county could afford at this time.

But Stockley noted the facility was large, and might also be able to provide space for a county morgue, a periodically discussed facility for the county, which Freeman favors.

For additional information about the Sterile Feral Foundation go online to www.sterileferal.org.

The humane society in McLean County is the Humane Society of Central Illinois. It has a Web site at www.hscipets.org.