Maine Municipal Tax Collectors' & Treasurers' Association
Home	Training	Executive Board		Newsletters	Links	Forms
MMTCTA List Serve					Back to List Serve Index

Posted August 17, 2005 by Janelle & Tina (Town of Woodland):Our new ACO was wondering if any other Town ACO's have ever done any research or policy regarding stray cats and rabies vaccinations.  We recently had a situation with a little girl who was attacked by a stray cat and discovered that the Town is liable for all stray rabied cats.  The cat tested negative for rabies. However, if the results were positive the Town would have been responsible for all medical expenses involved.  This has prompted the ACO to come up with a way to keep track of the cat population(stray and house pets).  The only problem is how attempt to do this and is it worth the attempt?  If any of your Towns has discussed this and/or has a policy regarding stray cats, please respond. Also, our Selectmen would like to stop accepting presonal checks from customers and invest in a credit/debit card machine.  We were wondering how many other Town's are currently using credit/debit card machines and what kind of fees are involved with card companies. 

Replies: Hope these will help. Claire Morrison in Sanford (Go to Sanford Animal Control Ordinance)

You will be charged start up fees and tractions fees, for both debt and credit card use. I suggest that you start inquiry with the bank that your Town does business with. I did a study of the services provided more than two years ago. I am sure the costs have changed since then. Also check with some of your local businesses to see where they purchased the service and equipment from. We did not install either for customer use. (Eva Leavitt, Turner)

I will print your inquiry regarding stray cats and forward to our ACO. As for the credit cards, we just voted at a special town meeting to allow the use of debit/credit cards. In town meeting form of government, we had to get approval to create the account for the credit card fees, then we had to fund the account from undesignated funds because we had already committed taxes. The amount we funded was $4,000. The interest rate for person to person transaction is about 1.9 to 2.2%. Over the phone can go up at high as 3%. The use of credit or debit cards is prohibited for tax bill payments. (Paula Clark, Newport)

Hi, I just got my answer back from ACO. He tells me that if a cat bites a person, it is quarantined just like a dog for 10 days to see if it shows signs of rabies. If not, it is released to the owner, or else adopted, or destroyed.  As long as the town ACO responds and ensures that the cat is quarantined, the town should not be liable. This issue may be covered in a local ordinance, but it would be a hard case to prove that a town, a body corporate, is responsible for the cats that are strays. (Paula Clark, Newport)

The animal control office in Augusta relates that all towns are supposed to have written contracts with at least one animal shelter which obligates that shelter to accept any stray cats or dogs that the town (through its own ACO) may take in to it. Do any of you have such a contract that can be altered by another town for this purpose? You may reply direct to tgoulette@verizon.net , and thanks for the help. (Tom Goulette, Guilford)