constitution requires several things when a citizen’s property is seized by the government. One is that
the owner of the property must be properly informed prior to the seizure that the law permits seizure of
the property (i.e. the animal) under certain circurnstances, and what those circumstances are. Once a
seizure of personal property occurs, the governmental entity which seized the property must notify the
owner of the property of the seizure and must provide some mechanism whereby the owner can at
least attempt to retrieve the property from the government. At minimum, the lack of a licensing law for
cats means the City has no way to identify the cat that’s been seized, so the City is unable to provide
notice to the owner of the seizure and the opportunity to recover the cat from the City.
Based on all of this | submit that the City’s actions in impounding cats as strays or for running at
large exceeds and is beyond the City’s legal authority as provided by existing law. Such practice or
conduct is also unconstitutional, or potentially so, in my view because depriving a cat owner of his or her
pet without having a licensing law that allows the City to identify a cat owner and to give that person
proper notice of the seizure of the cat violates the owner’s due process rights in and to their personal
property. In fact. RSA 466:13-a expressly provides that municipalities may license cats and if they do the
same penalties can be applied to cats as are applied to dogs. Such penalties would presumably include
seizing and impounding as a cat as a stray or for running at large if they stray from their owner's
property. if the City wants to regulate cats as they do dogs, then the City is free create a program for
licensing cats, and, to modify its’ animal control ordinance to include specific and express restrictions on
cats and imposing penalties for violations of those restriction. Until then, the City is engaging in illegal
and potentially unconstitutional activities when engaging in the seizure, transport and impounding of
cats and/or ferrets.
| tried to fix this issue by meeting and speaking with the City at the time my cat was seized and
impounded in 2017. In fact, | thought | had resolved the issue quietly and privately. At the time in 2017, |
