I am shocked and raging mad about the results of the cat license survey. At least, that's what I was led to believe the survey was all about, not the city looking for a way to bring the hammer down on all dog owners.

Despite all the overwhelming results from the survey, the city decides to leave cats alone to walk fences, to antagonize dogs into barking excessively causing the possibility of owners getting a complaint and a fine while the cat owner pays nothing and the cat is free to keep on doing it.

The city says it's too expensive and yet it has no idea how much money it would pull in with cat licenses because it has no idea how many cats are in St. Albert.

The city says it's too expensive yet thinks nothing of the money and time it wasted with projects such as smart growth. This city spent more than half a million dollars for a picnic. How about the white elephant known as Servus Place, which does and will continue to suck taxpayers’ pockets dry? How about the downtown area redevelopment plan? Is this free?

What statistics have shown that there's suddenly a major problem with dog attacks in all the parks or on the streets? Not all cats are safe, friendly furballs either. I've personally been attacked and had my face clawed up badly by a cat twice as a youngster. At seven years old my little sister needed stitches from a cat. A bad ordeal she still hasn't forgotten. A dog of mine nearly lost its eyes to a mean freelancing cat who attacked for no reason as we were out for a walk. My vet bill was not cheap but of course our city officials don't care.

The survey shows a high number of people irritated about cat feces in gardens and yards, rightfully so, but the city doesn't care because it won’t make them money and they can simply raise our taxes to waste it on more personal likes such as statues at city hall.

With the city wasting millions of dollars per year, can’t the city just this once do something right by leaving the dogs alone and using less than a quarter million dollars to solve the cat feud?

Randy Marta, St. Albert

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