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PREVIOUSLY: U.S. Coast Guard Station Chetco River Rescues Newborn Kittens Abandoned Near Gold Beach Cat Sanctuary

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A Gold Beach landmark that has housed Curry County’s feral “jetty cats” for the last 30 years will likely be torn down tomorrow, due to a falling-out between local residents, landowners and concerned cat lovers. 

The village of roughly 12 miniature houses that lines the town’s North Jetty has served as a dumping ground for unwanted cats that reportedly used to be thrown off the Rogue River Bridge or left for dead along the jetty rocks.

             The Gold Beach jetty cat sanctuary.| Photo by Dan Wenzel

Local community member Alice Ingersoll-Hammermeister told the Outpost that chatter about the cat sanctuary began in November, when residents noticed that the jetty shelters were falling apart. 

“A few of us went down to the jetty and had a look,” Ingersoll-Hammermeister said. “They were in bad disrepair. There were unsafe things going on. Houses were rotting and the racoons were taking over.”

                                      A look at the feral cat sanctuary in 2013.

That’s when Ingersoll-Hammermeister offered to head up a committee of concerned citizens that planned to capture the current lot of “jetty cats” and build brand new shelters with the help of a local retired contractor.

With verbal permission given to the committee from a member of the Knox family — which owns the land adjacent to the jetty — the group began to collect the feral cats, provide them proper medical treatment and find suitable new homes.

However, the deal with the Knoxs allegedly fell apart several weeks later when residents neighboring the jetty began to complain about the cat sanctuary on the Facebook group Gold Beach Community Forum.

   Local resident Nancy Sue Rose informs the Curry County Board                      of Commisioners about the issue earlier this month.

“[Nearby resident Bo Shindler] expressed his position in a way that was so nasty and so horrible,” Ingersoll-Hammermeister said. “He said that he has to deal with all the traffic from the cat houses, dead cats, sick cats and illegally parked RVs. He lumped it all into one thing and blamed cat houses for these other problems.”

Ingersoll-Hammermeister said she blocked Shindler from the Facebook discussion in response to his comments, then unblocked him a week later after he complained to the Knox family that he wasn’t allowed to voice his concerns about the cat sanctuary. 

Following the social media drama, Ingersoll-Hammermeister said the Knoxs suddenly had a change of heart, and on Jan. 14, the jetty cat committee received a letter signed by property owner Scott Knox, Sharon Mather, Larry Kammer and Bo Shindler, stating that they wanted the cat sanctuary permanently removed as soon as possible.

“We believe you and others in your group mean well, it is a challenging situation and we wish you the best with your efforts,” the letter reads. “However, you have not reached out to those of us who are most directly affected, our opposition voice has been blocked on social media, and you have blocked the ability of anyone who opposes your posts to see what you're advocating on social media.”

 

While these local residents hope to solve the feral cat issue by removing the sanctuary, Ingersoll-Hammermeister said that their decision will make the problem worse. That’s because the nine or so cats that were recently removed from the sanctuary and the nearby jetty rocks only represent a small portion of the feral cats that live in the surrounding area.

“There are dozens of feral cats that live in the [adjacent] 20-acre field,” Ingersoll-Hammermeister said. “People are going to continue to dump, ferrells are going to continue to procreate. The problem is going to be exacerbated because nobody will be trapping them and taking them to the vet without a program in place.”

Meanwhile, local animal shelters like South Coast Humane Society in Brookings are doing what they can to find homes for as many of the cats as possible.

“I’m trying to do right by the pets in the community,” South Coast Humane Society Supervisor Jenifer Alcorn told the Outpost. “I know people are pissed because they're tearing it down, but it's private property. It has been a dumping place in the past. I hope that that will not continue to be the case. I’m telling people to reach out to my selfter and Wild Rivers Animal Rescue. I don't turn pets away.”

With hours left before the cat houses are removed, Ingersoll-Hammermeister is holding out hope that a deal can be reached to continue housing the stray and feral cats.

“I still have hope that maybe we can work something out,” she said. “This is coming to an end. It's all very sad … I can't even begin to tell you. I can't go down there. I just start crying.”

The Knox family declined to comment for this article.

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