Flash player is required to view weather conditions. Download

The Lakota school board members apologized Monday for the actions of a trapper who killed six feral cats already adopted by members of local organization Save Our Strays.

Independence Elementary teachers had complained of a urine smell making students in portable classrooms ill. After a raccoon made a hole in the trailer's floor and poked its nose and paws through, Principal Greg Finke said he asked the school district to hire Terry Yinger And Son Animal Control to get rid of the wild animals as quickly as possible.

"I can't have wild animals living under the portables where the kids are," Finke said.

Because a skunk and raccoon were attracted to the cat food placed near the classrooms, Finke said the trapper removed the cats, telling the district he took them to a farm in Oxford.

Yinger said he did not know there was a prior agreement with the school and SOS, but that he was just doing his job. When the cats got in the traps he set for the raccoon and skunk, he said he had to take action and gas all the animals.

"If they scratch a kid, they carry all kinds of diseases," he said. "Anything that I catch, I have to euthanize. It's a state law."

Women from various stray cat organizations called him until he told them what really happened, he said.

Liberty Twp. resident Jennifer Albrecht, who had cared for the colony for more than two years, said the urine smell was most likely due to the skunk and raccoon, and the way Yinger trapped and killed the cats was inhumane.

"There was a humane solution here," she said. "It was not that hard. Is tax-payer money being used to kill cats and wild life?"

According to school spokesman Jon Weidlich, the district paid Yinger $500 for the removal.

Albrecht, a Christ Hospital nurse, said in 2004 she personally trapped the cats, had them spayed and neutered, and then returned eight to the site with the principal's permission.

Finke said if cats return to the location in the future, he will call SOS and see if they can relocate the animals, but in the midst of the situation, he just needed the animals removed as quickly as possible.

For the founder of Neighborhood Cat Helpers, Millie Schafer, that explanation is not good enough. She told the school board Monday she thought Finke broke a verbal agreement deliberately and owes Save Our Strays and the designated colony feeder all the expenses incurred.

"This school system should be teaching compassion, respect for all that live and walk on this earth," Schafer said. "Not only did the school fail in this regard, the principal also demonstrated a complete disregard for the emotional pain he caused the colony feeder who spent so much emotional and financial investment caring for these cats."

Superintendent Mike Taylor said he wanted to meet with representatives from the organizations to talk about what could be done in the future, but that killing the cats was not intentional.

"I think this is the last thing that Mr. Finke wanted to occur with those particular cats" Taylor said. "We feel horrible about it."

Albrecht told the board she did not want an apology, but action.

"I don't want this to have happened for no reason, because it's a shame they had to resort to this," she said. "When this happens again — because it will — I want them to have a policy. Feral cats are the result of irresponsible pet owners, period. This is a people problem, not an animal problem."

Board President Joan Powell said the district appreciates the literature the group provided on the animals.

"What we want to do is make this a learning situation for all," she said. "I certainly want to thank the citizens who have come forward to offer help in future situations that may occur."

For more information about Save Our Strays and feral cats, visit www.SOScats.com.

Contact this reporter at (513)755-5067 or lhilty@coxohio.com.