Wolverhampton City Council set to seize 12 cats after protest
A dozen cats belonging to a Wolverhampton widow will be seized if they enter neighbours' gardens within days after she refused to give them up.
Jane Bood will not comply with Wolverhampton City Council's enforcement notice demanding that she reduce the 17 cats she owns to five.
The council is acting following complaints from neighbours and a 50-signature petition but Mrs Bood and her family are prepared to challenge the decision in the courts. Council officers will trap the cats in neighbours' gardens and Mrs Bood fears they will be destroyed if new homes are not found for them.
Mrs Bood, aged 65, challenged an enf-orcement notice issued by Wolverhampton City Council following complaints from neighbours at her home in Lower Prestwood Road, Wednesfield.
In 2010 the widow had 27 cats, sparking a 50-name petition, but has not been replacing any that have died and there are now 17. But the council said that having any more than five was a breach of the planning permission for her home.
Mrs Bood got her first cats seven years ago after her husband David passed away and one of them had a litter of kittens.
The males were neutered but the females bred with other cats and by 2010 she had so many that neighbours were complaining.
Mrs Bood is worried the cats will be given a lethal injection if they cannot be rehomed.
She is being represented by her niece Helen Lowbridge who has said she is prepared to take the matter all the way through the courts.
