A first-term Olcott councilwoman's hissy fit has resulted in the shuttering of at least one longtime business there, a boycott against the picturesque lakefront community, and a possible death sentence for as many as a dozen stray cats that may be headed for the ASPCA's gas chamber.
On learning of the feline fiasco, Reporter Publisher Bruce Battaglia took the unprecedented action of suspending all deliveries to the village, a move that will now force loyal readers to travel as far as Newfane for the latest in news, views and entertainment.
"Somebody's got to draw a line in the sand," Battaglia said. "Well, the buck stops here."
At the root of the problem is soon-to-be-famous cat-hater Councilwoman Laura Rutland, who was handed the job of town liaison to the Lakeview Village Fair, a municipally owned block of Olcott storefronts.
But quickly Rutland found that her job consisted of a fancy title and little else. Most of the quaint shops at Lakeview Village Fair have been there for some time, pay their rent and are pretty much self-sustaining. They didn't need any help from Olcott's newest councilwoman.
So, like petit bourgeois officials throughout history, Rutland racked her brain for a way to assert her newfound authority.
Enter Tim Hull, owner of a successful Christmas shop that had thrived at the Village Fair for 14 years. Along with a friend, Carol Koup, Hull looked after Olcott's stray cat population, picking them up, having them spayed or neutered, and providing food and shelter in a makeshift habitat they erected outside the store.
Several more cats -- the lucky ones, as it turns out -- were adopted and allowed to roam the store, keeping it free of rats and other nasty vermin common to waterfront communities like Olcott.
An antipathy for cats, then thought to be witches' familiars, is thought by many to have been a factor in the rapid spread of the bubonic plague in Europe during the 14th and 17th centuries. Infected rats, traveling on the small sailing vessels of the day, disembarked at various ports of call. The cats, having been killed off by the ignorant and superstitious people, weren't there to prey on the rodents, which roamed freely and spread the deadly disease. In all, half the population of Europe was condemned to an agonizing death.
Councilwoman Rutland apparently doesn't like cats, either, and issued Hull an ultimatum on March 24. The cats would have to go, she ordered.
A brouhaha erupted of the sort that can only happen in a tiny, backward village, pitting cat lovers against cat haters and clawing at the very fabric of the peaceful community just as the all-important tourist season was about to begin.
Hull closed his shop, the joyful lights of Christmas no longer seeming appropriate in such a hard-hearted environment. And last month, the makeshift shelter Hull and Koup erected was destroyed by vandals who have yet to be brought to justice.
Tempers flared as a crowd of more than 60 people jammed into a packed meeting room to discuss the issue. Confronting the officious Rutland directly, Olcott resident Bruce Speller accused her of responsibility for the vandalism.
"You took this on as a personal vendetta," he said. "You emboldened the people who did that."
It was then that the specter of a boycott of the village reared its ugly head. In a tiny community dependent on tourists for many of its residents' livelihoods, the absence of even a few well-heeled cat fanciers will be noticed.
"I think you've made a big mistake," said Susan Williams of Middleport. "I know I won't be coming back to Olcott." "I will never spend another dime in Olcott for what you did," echoed Judi Gewand of Gasport.
But the supervisors had backed themselves into a corner. All voted to back their neophyte colleague, except for veteran Councilwoman Jane Voelpel, who is active in the Save-a-Pet animal rescue and adoption movement. What had been a unilateral war on cats declared by Rutland now became official policy, to the everlasting shame of those involved.
Without Hull and Koup volunteering to feed and shelter the cats, and have them spayed and neutered, the village feral cat problem will undoubtedly increase. Olcott taxpayers will now be saddled with an ongoing and costly maintenance problem that won't go away, not to mention the loss of rent and sales tax resulting from Hull closing his store.
Now those looking for festive holiday decorations will be forced to look elsewhere, along with those in search of the Niagara Falls Reporter, the county's most popular newspaper.
And cat lovers everywhere will remember. For years tiny Olcott has struggled to re-establish itself as a friendly, small town resort, where the region's all-too-brief summers may be enjoyed to the fullest. Now, Councilwoman Rutland's anti-cat crusade threatens to make it known for all the wrong reasons.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | May 6 2008 |