By Julie Hauserman
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| ©The HSUS |
| Demonstrators protest roundup of JFK Airport feral cats. |
Animal lovers in New York City got some very bad news on Memorial Day.
After agreeing last fall to suspend the roundup of feral cats at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Port Authority officials announced they had hired exterminators to resume the process immediately.
The cats in the feral colony, part of the airport landscape for decades, were once again facing a death sentence.
Swinging into Action
Within days, HSUS Executive Vice President Michael Markarian and New York State Director Patrick Kwan, along with 80 animal welfare advocates, rallied at the headquarters of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in Manhattan's Union Square to call for more humane treatment for the cat colony.
The June 3 demonstration was the latest action in the year-long struggle between animal protection groups and port authority officials to establish a trap-neuter-return program (TNR)—a proven population control method—to save the 300-500 feral cats living on the 5,000-acre property.
Since last summer, The HSUS, Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Best Friends, Alley Cat Allies, and In Defense of Animals have been trying to convince the Port Authority to implement a TNR program. To date, the groups have received little to no response from the agency.
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| The cat's clipped left ear indicates he is a feral and has been trapped, neutered and returned to the outside. |
Flawed Logic
"What the Port Authority is doing is not only inhumane; it is an ineffective strategy," Kwan said. "They are only able to round up five to ten cats a week at the most, while the colony population continues to grow."
In contrast, the small army of volunteers at the ready could trap more cats on an ongoing basis and monitor which ones have been spayed and neutered, Kwan added.
The trappers who have been hired by Port Authority to run the catch-and-kill program are unlikely to be successful, according to Kwan.
Nancy Peterson, feral cat program manager for The HSUS, said there would be fewer cats at JFK today if the Port Authority had accepted the resources offered by experts to produce a long-term solution.
"New York City is really fortunate," Peterson said. "It has a feral cat council and many experts to call upon. Why not allow the trap-neuter-return approach? It is more effective and humane."
Kwan and other advocates have also reached out to New York media, and the message is getting heard.
A "Birdbrained Plan" by Port Authority
In an editorial in Newsday, the roundups were described as "…a birdbrained plan by the Port Authority that most certainly will kill the many cats who take shelter in some remote cargo areas at Kennedy Airport is so saddening."
"The Port Authority should stop turning away offers of help from animal rescue groups," the editorial continued. "These organizations have had success with trap-neuter-and-release policies, which stabilize the cat population through sterilization, reducing it over time. Besides, the Port Authority's current plan won't work: Animals not trapped will continue to breed, and newly abandoned ones will just start new colonies."
