Home > Out of the Cage! > Fall/Holiday 2007 > Mayor's Alliance Leads Efforts to Save Feral Cats at JFK Airport

Mayor's Alliance Leads Efforts to Save Feral Cats at JFK Airport

In October, The Port Authority of New York, which manages NYC's airports, suddenly decided to exterminate the feral cats living on the airport grounds. Their solution is to trap the cats and take them to animal control, where, according to The Port Authority, good homes will be found for them.

When news of the intended removal of the cats spread, an outpouring of protest arose from the public and the animal protection community. They recognized that the cats, being feral and not socialized to people, cannot be adopted, and instead would be killed.

The Mayor's Alliance spearheaded efforts to provide The Port Authority with a more effective and more humane solution: trap-neuter-return (TNR). Jane Hoffman, president of the Mayor's Alliance, offered to sit down with Port Authority representatives and show them how they could permanently, over time, reduce the feral cat population at the airport through TNR. But Port Authority management refused to discuss the plan, and instead began trapping the cats and taking them to Animal Care & Control shelters.

Working day and night, Ms. Hoffman, along with Valerie Sicignano, coordinator of the NYC Feral Cat Initiative (a program of the Mayor's Alliance) and East Coast Director of In Defense of Animals, Bryan Kortis, director of Neighborhood Cats, and Patrick Kwan of M. Silver Associates, which handles public relations for the Mayor's Alliance, mobilized the animal welfare community, enlisted support from the media, and fought back. Their efforts were echoed by pleas from influential leaders from the animal welfare community nationwide — including Ed Sayres, President of the ASPCA; Nancy Peterson, Feral Cat Program Manager of the Humane Society of the United States; Becky Robinson, President of Alley Cat Allies; Dr. Elliot Katz, Executive Director of In Defense of Animals; and even the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages, usually a single-focused organization, to give TNR a chance.

Taking the issue to the streets, cat enthusiasts and concerned individuals, some carrying signs and chanting slogans, twice demonstrated peacefully outside The Port Authority headquarters on Park Avenue South. Despite pouring rain, the second demonstration, on November 15, drew 85 people outside The Port Authority Board of Commissioners meeting. The media reported on the controversy. On November 10, Newsday published an editorial in support of a TNR program at JFK.

Finally, JFK airport management agreed to discuss the issue. On November 15, as supporters of a TNR program at JFK demonstrated outside a meeting of The Port Authority's Board of Commissioners at its headquarters, Mr. Kortis and Ms. Sicignano addressed the Board of Commissioners during the public comment period. And Ms. Hoffman had a discussion with JFK airport's general manager, Susan Baer.

By now the JFK cats have received national media attention, with USA TODAY reporting the story on November 19 and writer Amy Sacks reporting in a New York Daily News article the good advice offered by Mr. Kortis describing how the general public can help feral cats — by learning TNR and practicing it in their neighborhoods. "By fixing the cats, " he says, "they become healthier, roam less, stop reproducing and become better neighbors."

Letters to the editor of USA TODAY from Mr. Sayres and Ms. Robinson followed the November 19 article, as did a letter to the editor of Newsday from Ms. Peterson, complementing the coverage and further making a case for TNR.

But as of yet The Port Authority has not agreed to permit a TNR project. Meanwhile, we are standing ready to implement the proposal for a pilot program presented to them on September 5. And the ASPCA is ready and willing to bring in its mobile spay/neuter vans as part of the project.

If you want to stay current on developments with the JFK cats, visit the Neighborhood Cats website. There you'll find contact information for Port Authority and airport management that you should contact by phone, fax, and e-mail to demand that the cats not be removed but instead, that a TNR pilot project be implemented.

To learn more about how you can help improve the lives of feral and stray cats in your neighborhood, for a schedule of times and locations of feral cat training workshops, or to read about how the NYC Feral Cat Initiative of the Mayor's Alliance is making TNR a reality for feral cats throughout NYC's five boroughs, visit www.NYCFeralCat.org.