WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) - Marathon County will be cutting funding for stray cats kept at the Humane Society. Several supervisors say the county can no longer afford the thousands of dollars a year to board strays, and believe there are other ways to pay those costs. One of those ways is to have cities, towns, and villages directly pay the Humane Society for stray cat care. That’s because those governmental units can collect funds through cat licenses, where the county is prohibited from doing so.
There is 60-thousand dollars in tax levy money set aside for this year. The original proposal also offered half of that for next year and nothing in 2015.
Humane Society of Marathon County officials are not pleased with the vote, saying the resolution is not the way to solve the problem.
State law requires counties to fund stray dogs for seven days, but there is no requirement to pay for stray cats. This funding cut does not affect cats that are surrendered to the shelter, only strays.