ROCHELLE — An ordinance that had been on the City of Rochelle books since 1996 was amended Monday night — a move resulting from an uproar over the city posting on social media last week about policy for trapping stray cats and possibly euthanizing them.
City officials received a great deal of public backlash on Thursday afternoon following the release of a proposal for dealing with feral cats in the community, which was based on the current ordinance.
Reaction was strongly opposed to a plan that was released by the city through its own social media platform, allowing residents to trap and turn in feral cats roaming the neighborhoods. The uproar was caused by a statement in the release that the local veterinarian clinic may euthanize any stray cats that were captured.
Monday night, council approved an amendment to the ordinance, striking the wording from the ordinance that read: Any dog or cat not registered and unclaimed after three days may be destroyed. Any dog or cat registered and unclaimed seven days after notice is mailed to the person designated on the registration as the owner, by regular mail, may be destroyed.

“On Thursday when this happened and the whole process started around 11 a.m. and by 4:45 p.m. there had been a full interview with [a local] TV station, also broadcast live on Facebook, there had been a meeting with staff to address the issue and there were talks about what was going to be done moving forward. Friday morning the city manager and myself met with staff and there was some talk about what was being done going forward a little further, and it was stated, not that this matters, but it’s clear that everyone knows, the ordinance was an ordinance that started in 1996,” Rochelle Mayor John Bearrows said. “It’s not an ordinance that any council members currently or staff had anything to do with. This was an old ordinance and I think it’s also important, because of some of the attacks made on staff, that the council and the mayor set policies, the city manager carries out the policies based upon what the council wants. So, to attack the city manager for carrying out a policy that was on the books was totally wrong.”
Bearrows continued by explaining how the issue came to the forefront.
“This only came up because of some questions posed to the city council on Facebook – we have a program called Ask Us Anything - some comments were made about what to do about feral cats, some people felt it was a problem, that’s kind of what started this whole issue.”
Along with the amendment to the ordinance, Bearrows said a task force would be formed to research how to move forward in dealing with stray and feral cats in Rochelle.
“Tonight, what we do going forward, I’m going to ask city council for a motion to remove a section of the current code Section 14-36 relative to feral cats and euthanization… I’m also going to ask to work with the city manager over the next several days to develop a task force of board members, three of which will be myself and two staff members and the fourth will be an outside member of the community to review… we’ve had several people reach out to us about some things that we can do and some programs that are out there available...there’s a ton and I learned that in the last 72 hours,” Bearrows said. “We’re going to discuss not only what program we’re going to come up with and how we move forward but we’re going to figure out how we’re going to fund it.
Council members voted 7-0 in favor of the amendment to the ordinance.