David Spence Tried to Solve a Feral Cat Problem on His Own Property. He Was Forced to Apologize.
Bishop Arts District in Oak Cliff, Dallas, Texas is one of the city's trendiest neighborhoods. Boutique shops, craft cocktail bars, upscale restaurants. It also has a massive feral cat problem. Fat, happy, roaming cats everywhere: sleeping outside restaurants, darting through alleys, breeding in parking lots.
David Spence owns over a dozen properties in Bishop Arts through his development group Good Space. Between May and October 2025, he began trapping feral cats on and around his properties and relocating them to Grand Prairie, a suburb about 15 miles west. His stated reason: public health concerns. Cat feces, fleas, urine on commercial property, potential liability.
By Lisa Dennis's count, at least six managed colony cats disappeared.
The Activists Mobilized
Meri Dahlke, owner of Ten Bells Tavern in Bishop Arts, noticed cats from her managed colony going missing. She contacted Lisa Dennis, founder of a local group called Cats in the Cliff. Dennis began organizing.
Photos of cats trapped in cages outside Spence's buildings circulated on social media. One image showed a black-and-white cat bracing against the bars of a cage left outside Emporium Pies. Protests followed. Regular demonstrations outside Spence's properties. A Change.org petition titled "Stop David Spence's Inhumane Treatment of Neighborhood Cats" gathered thousands of signatures.
The Numbers Tell a Different Story
Dallas received 8,500 feral cat service requests between August 2023 and September 2025. That's 8,500 calls from residents begging for help with roaming, fighting, spraying, diseased cats. Thirty-six percent of those calls came from just five ZIP codes.
The city's response? Community Cat Program. Trap-Neuter-Return. Catch the cat, snip it, dump it back in the same neighborhood. The colony persists. The urine persists. The fleas persist.
Spence Backed Down
On October 5, 2025, Spence and Dennis issued a joint statement. Spence agreed to stop capturing cats, apologized for "any suffering he may have caused," and made donations to animal charities endorsed by Dennis. Dennis agreed to end the protests and expressed regret for "any strain or concern" the demonstrations caused.
Translation: a property owner tried to manage a health hazard on his own commercial real estate and was publicly shamed into surrendering. The cats stayed. The property owner lost.
This is how cat politics works in America. You can own the building, pay the taxes, maintain the property, and carry the liability. But touch the cats? You'll answer for it.
Dallas still has 8,500 unanswered service requests. Nobody made the cats apologize.
Sources:
KERA News - Developer, Advocates Clash Over Bishop Arts' Beloved Community Cats
KERA News - Developer, Advocates End 'Dispute' Over Bishop Arts Cats
Dallas Observer - Dallas Businessman and Animal Advocates Reach Truce Over Cats