A colony of community cats living on campus at Cypress College has prompted allegations of animal cruelty while Orange County remains without a catch and release program to reduce stray cat populations.
Recent social media and online blog posts have alleged that Cypress College employees are intentionally harming feral and stray cat colonies on campus, including depriving cats of food and water and purposely destroying water dishes.
A blog known as Cats of Cypress College has been documenting community cat populations on the campus for a few years and claims cats that live in a maintenance facility parking lot are “being killed” and hurt by employees.
“I have reported the animal abuse to three campus presidents, but the killing hasn’t stopped,” reads the website, created by a resident named Stan Russell.
“These cats didn’t choose this and they shouldn’t be murdered for being born here,” it continues. “The people killing these cats need to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
Russell has also claimed he witnessed a Cypress College employee striking and injuring a cat with a rake, which led to the cat being euthanized due to the injuries.
Cypress College President Scott Thayer released a statement earlier this month addressing the animal cruelty allegations.
“Let me be emphatically clear: cats are not being killed on our campus and such horrendous actions most certainly would never be condoned by me or anyone in a position of leadership at Cypress College,” reads the statement posted on the college’s website.
“If we had observed, learned of, or received any credible evidence of such acts, we would have taken disciplinary action to ensure that the perpetrator would not have access to ever harm an animal again.”
Thayer wrote that when he became president of the college in 2024, he was informed about the cat colonies and implemented a “newly designed program to care for the cats” that lived on campus.
He explained that the number of cats living on campus has gone down in recent years and the school has worked with Orange County Animal Care to adopt out two cats and six kittens to families.
“We have even worked with the Cypress Police Department to investigate allegations,” reads a portion of Thayer’s statement. “The claims that cats are intentionally being killed is unfounded. A community member, who has worked with the college on and off over the past few years, has raised these allegations but provided an incomplete and intentionally biased view of the situation on his website to influence the outcome he desires.”
The statement continues to explain that five cats and kittens were found dead on campus since January 2023 — two were killed by coyotes, one was hit by a car and the other two causes of death are unknown, according to Thayer’s statement.
It also says the college provides clean water for the cats, but does not provide food since feeding feral animals is prohibited by state law as a misdemeanor.
Cypress College President Thayer also gave a presentation to the North Orange County Community College District board during its meeting on Sept. 9 — including an overview of the history of cats on campus and what the college is doing to address and care for the colonies.
He also reiterated that employees on campus are not hurting cats.
“I have not directed anyone at Cypress College to harm, kill cats,” Thayer told board members. “That’s a narrative that’s being put out there, and I just want to state that if that were happening, we would definitely be looking at that.”
Cypress Police Department Captain Chris Revere said the police department takes the allegations of animal abuse seriously.
“We’ve looked into these matters several times, and we haven’t been able to find any information that leads us to conclude that there’s any substance to them,” Revere said at the meeting.
“That doesn’t mean that it’s not happening conclusively for us, because we have to be an independent party investigating allegations of crime, so if anybody has information that might change that perspective in the future, we are certainly open to listening to that and investigating further,” he said.
Multiple speakers at the meeting, many of whom are Cypress College employees, asked the board to hire a company to humanely remove the cats and prevent people from coming on campus to feed them.
Employees from the college also told board members they’re being harassed in response to widespread social media posts about animal abuse allegations.
“A man named Stan has created online content accusing us of killing cats, and his words have gone viral — millions of people have seen it, and now we have been harassed with hateful phone calls, threats and strangers calling us horrible names,” a Cypress College maintenance employee told board members on Sept. 9.
“This has been deeply painful, but I need to make it clear, we have never harmed these animals. From the very beginning, we have worked hard to care for them,” he said. “What if someone tries to come through on one of their promises of causing us physical harm at work?”
Russell, who created the Cats of Cypress College blog, also addressed the social media response.
“I can’t control what other people do on the internet, and I agree that goes crazy,” he said at the meeting. “We’ve all seen that — that’s not me. I put together a website because the school kept denying this was happening, and I said I’m going to prove it.”
School board member Ryan Bent said he has major concerns about the work conditions for maintenance employees, many of whom reported their outdoor work spaces are often covered in cat urine and feces.
He also said he’d support a policy in the future to address the cat populations, although it would need extensive study.
“I’m quite concerned because we regularly negotiate with our unions, and working conditions is such an important part of those contracts that this hasn’t really been brought up before,” Bent said.
“We are a higher education institution, we’re not a wildlife sanctuary,” he continued, “and we definitely need to find a balance where we can have an environment that’s conducive to learning and working in.”
Still No Catch & Release Program for Orange County’s Cats
Orange County’s animal shelter still maintains that a catch and release program for unowned cats is against the law, despite a recent court case in San Diego saying otherwise.
These programs — known as trap, neuter and return (TNR) — release unowned cats back where they were found after a spay or neuter to prevent the community cats from having more litters.
Cats that have gone through catch and release programs typically have a tip of one of their ears cut off.
Many animal welfare groups consider TNR one of the most effective and humane ways to manage community cat populations.
While it’s commonly offered across the state and nation, Orange County’s animal shelter continues to refuse to offer this kind of service.
OC Animal Care used to offer trap, neuter and return services before the COVID-19 pandemic, but officials nixed the program over concerns that releasing cats back into the community could be considered animal abandonment, which is illegal.
Activists have spent years calling for the shelter to reinstate TNR in order to help reduce the increasing number of kittens and feral cats on the streets.
[Read: Why is There No Catch and Release Program for Orange County’s Cats?]
A recent San Diego Superior Court ruling found the San Diego Humane Society’s catch and release program is legal as long as it remains only for community cats with no signs of ownership — since releasing lost or abandoned pets is still considered animal abandonment.
OC Animal Care spokesperson Alexa Pratt said the county shelter has still been advised by counsel that the release of all unowned cats into the community is illegal.
“The SDHS case you reference is a trial court decision and does not provide binding legal precedent. Therefore, the decision does not impact County guidance on the RTF (return to field) and TNR programs,” Pratt wrote.
“The shelter and its County partners continue to monitor litigation around the state for rulings that provide an alternative interpretation of Penal Code 597s and clear direction on this issue, or resolution via a legislative fix at the state level.”
President Thayer’s statement also mentions that the college works to “trap, neuter and adopt” cats instead of using traditional TNR programs that “aren’t permissible.”
During the North Orange County Community College District board meeting on Sept. 9, board member Ed Lopez also pointed to the San Diego case as a potential solution and mentioned Garden Grove Animal Care Services offers a catch and release program.
OC Animal Care also does not accept healthy stray cats into the shelter and directs people who have trapped a healthy stray cat to return it where it was found.
Angelina Hicks is the Voice of OC Collegiate News Service Editor. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.