Early in the morning, Debbie Gabriel parks her car at Lefferts Avenue in Flatbush, Brooklyn. She is welcomed by many street cats emerging from behind an iron gate. Ms. Gabriel has been taking care of cat colonies for 23 years, and despite the challenges, she feeds them on a daily basis and tends to their medical needs as much as possible. Flatbush is one of many neighborhoods in New York with a feral cat issue, and with half a million such cats estimated to be roaming the city, the problem is significant.
There are numerous reasons for the rise in feral cat colonies. A pandemic-induced financial crunch and shortage of veterinarians, which made it difficult for pet owners to keep their pets, has played a role. Many people have also released their unwanted cats instead of taking them to shelters, fearing the animals would be put down. Moreover, the city’s eviction moratoriums and other pandemic-era economic protections have contributed to the problem. Almost every neighborhood offers suitable habitats for feral cats, from alleys and tenement basements to empty lots and abandoned cars, especially in low-income areas.
Although street cats may help reduce the rat population, they are also linked to the death of billions of birds in the United States, making them a destructive, invasive species. Street cats also face numerous dangers such as disease, injury, and heavily trafficked roads. Flatbush Cats, a non-profit organization, has proposed a solution formed in England in the 1950s: trap, neuter, return (TNR). The TNR solution aims to capture and neuter feral cats before releasing them back to the streets to live out their lives, eventually depleting and eliminating feral cat colonies. Some animal protection groups endorse TNR, while others, such as the Audubon Society and Cornell Lab of Ornithology, oppose it.
Flatbush Cats hopes to open a 3,700-square-foot veterinary clinic on Flatbush Avenue in August to improve access to low-cost spay-and-neuter surgeries. However, the city’s Health Department and the Mayor’s Office of Animal Welfare have not backed TNR, and Flatbush Cats’ volunteers have faced opposition from residents in neighborhoods where cat colonies are well-established. Some caretakers are hesitant to trap cats and opt to allow colonies to reproduce, but most change their mind once they experience the resulting cat deaths and illnesses. Ultimately, New Yorkers need to find a lasting and humane solution to dealing with the city’s feral cat problem.
