DeBary City Council has voted to turn its trap-neuter-release program into a permanent permit ordinance, cementing a volunteer-driven effort to address the city's feral cat population. The vote locks in a process that traps free-roaming cats, has them surgically neutered, and returns them to the exact spot where they were found.
WKMG reported that city leaders formally wrote the effort into law this week. The outlet credited council member Patricia Stevenson with championing the program, including approaching Central Florida Community Pet Clinic about partnering to handle the surgical side of the work.
How the Trap-and-Release Process Works
Volunteers trap the cats, and the clinic takes it from there, carefully matching each animal to its trap before and after surgery so it can be returned to the same colony. The clinic dedicates a specific recovery space to the post-surgery period, one that staff have nicknamed “the Beach,” per the station's report. Volunteers then hold the cats through that recovery window before releasing them back to where they were originally found, a process DeBary resident Robin McClintock described to WKMG.
The city's own account of the program, posted by DeBary, explains the civic logic behind it: residents volunteer their time and resources to provide food, water, and shelter for local feral cat colonies. The city says this process helps reduce the overall feral cat population over time, prevents the spread of disease, and minimizes nuisance behaviors, according to the City of DeBary.
Volunteer Work Behind the Vote
Stevenson told the station that trap-neuter-release reduces nuisance behavior and protects public health, and she warned that feeding and caring for cats without the program in place would simply allow them to overpopulate and reproduce unchecked. She also helped launch a nonprofit to expand the effort and grow its volunteer base, saying the organization has since gained volunteers, increased its organizational capacity, and can now answer cat-related requests quickly, per the same account.
The numbers behind the push are notable. McClintock told WKMG that volunteers have trapped 160 cats or kittens so far this year. Separately, Bonnie Beale told the DeBary City Council that the group had processed 160 community cats from January 1 through October 5, completing 65 adoptions in that stretch, according to Citizen Portal. The two figures were reported separately and the dossier does not clarify whether they describe the same period.
Stevenson's Term Is Ending
Stevenson is due to leave the DeBary City Council in a few months because her term is ending, WKMG reported, closing out a tenure in which she helped turn an informal volunteer effort into permanent city policy.
How DeBary's Effort Compares Regionally
DeBary's move follows a broader regional pattern of formalizing feral cat management. Volusia County's own TNR program had sterilized more than 1,100 community cats so far in 2026, according to Observer Local News.
Nearby Deltona has also established a formal citywide program. Officials there said in July 2025 they would prepare a request for proposals and work with the commission on ordinance and contracting language, using the city's $60,000 annual budget as a starting point, Citizen Portal reported. DeBary's new ordinance formalizes its own program.
