Crowded City Shelters Confront Cat-aclysm - by Lisa L. Colangelo, New York Daily News City Hall Bureau - Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals, Inc. - Working with the City of New York to promote dog and cat adoption and spay and neuter programs to make New York a no-kill city.

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Crowded City Shelters Confront Cat-aclysm

by Lisa L. Colangelo, New York Daily News City Hall Bureau

Friday, January 30, 2004

Have you been thinking about getting a cat? How about two?

This is the time to do it.

Fewer people are venturing out in the cold to adopt cats, while more people are plucking strays from the freezing streets and dropping them off. As a result, there's a kitty population explosion going on at city animal shelters. And animal control officials are scrambling to find them happy homes.

The alternative is anything but happy. City shelters are forced to euthanize thousands and thousands of unwanted animals every year.

"We seem to have reached a critical point," said Ed Boks, executive director of New York City Animal Care and Control. "We are seeing pregnant cats already. That's usually a springtime phenomenon."

The agency's Manhattan shelter at 326 E. 110th St. is overflowing with cats and kittens. More felines are showing up at the Brooklyn and Staten Island shelters as well.

Private rescue groups, such as members of the Mayor's Alliance for NYC Animals, try to help city shelters deal with the daily barrage of unwanted animals.

This partnership has been especially successful in Staten Island, where Boks said no healthy, adoptable animal has been euthanized in three months.

But it's not enough to handle the latest influx of cats and kittens.

"If New Yorkers would just get their cats spayed and neutered, it would help the crisis we have in our shelters," he said.

Boks said people thinking of adopting one cat should think about two.

"It's easier on the cats if they are adopted out in pairs," he said. "They are social animals, and it makes the whole transition into a new home easier."

For information about adopting from New York City Animal Care and Control, call 311 or check the website: www.nycacc.com.

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