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Neighborhood Cats originated in September of 1999 when three neighbors (including co-founders Bryan Kortis and Ruth Sharp) each came across a vacant lot on the Upper Westside of Manhattan filled with feral cats and kittens. They soon learned that no organized help within the city was available - the shelters were full, the cats were too wild to be adopted right away and all the rescue groups were already overwhelmed. Anitra Frazier, author of "The New Natural Cat," referred them to Alley Cat Allies and they were introduced to the basics of trap-neuter-return.
But separating TNR from rescue proved a difficult task at first. The original members of Neighborhood Cats repeatedly found themselves in situations where their time and resources were spent saving cats and finding them homes - worthwhile pursuits for sure, but not activities that were furthering TNR. One project they undertook involved a particularly wild colony of cats living on the roof of a restaurant in Central Park. The cats had to be trapped and relocated over the course of several winter months, a draining and time-consuming process. Afterwards, the group resolved only to engage in pure TNR projects. With its focus now more sharply defined, Neighborhood Cats went about setting up several more model TNR colonies throughout Manhattan. Caretakers seeking help were required to help with paying vet expenses, providing a holding space, trapping and foster care. It was a high standard to meet and most callers were not willing to make the commitment, but sticking to these requirements resulted in a growing cadre of dedicated, well-trained feral cat caretakers who spread the TNR message through their very actions, such as current officer Meredith Weiss who brought the South Street Seaport cat population under control. Once it had a number of similar, well-documented successes to its credit, Neighborhood Cats started the process of meeting with officials from city agencies and larger animal welfare organizations and advocating for feral-friendly services. In March of 2001, Dr. Margaret Slater spoke at a feral cat seminar held by the ASPCA, the first of its kind in New York City. An eloquent advocate of TNR, Dr. Slater presented the advantages of the approach and debunked the most common counter arguments. After her presentation, a panel including Neighborhood Cats' Bryan Kortis, took questions from the audience. Kortis made the case for TNR's effectiveness even in a dense urban area like New York. From that point on, the TNR movement in NYC snowballed. In April of 2001, the ASPCA hosted Neighborhood Cats' first workshop designed to teach TNR and colony management techniques to caretakers. That summer, Alley Cat Allies featured Neighborhood Cats in its national newsletter. In June, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York held an evening program devoted to feral cats, which included Becky Robinson of Alley Cat Allies and Neighborhood Cats' President Mike Phillips on the panel. The over 200 attendees, representing every major NY animal group, watched videos on TNR (including "The Humane Solution" by Alley Cat Allies and our own "Neighborhood Cats") and heard the issue forcefully presented by the panel. In August of 2001, the Humane Society of New York opened its no-cost feral cat clinic, designed to meet the unique needs of feral cat caretakers. At about the same time, the ASPCA began offering its mobile spay/neuter van for use on-site with feral cat colonies, free of charge. These landmark services opened the door to mass trapping and neutering, and greatly expedited the spread of TNR. Utilizing these services, Neighborhood Cats shifted its strategy from setting up model colonies to performing high-profile TNR projects. In September of 2001, Neighborhood Cats set up the first authorized TNR colony in a city park. During that winter, a pilot TNR project was conducted with the Center for Animal Care & Control ("CACC"), the city's official animal control agency. In March of 2002, the trapping and neutering of the approximately 250 feral cats living on Rikers Island, the largest jail in the country, was begun under the auspices of the NYC Department of Correction and as a joint effort with the ASPCA, the Humane Society of NY, the CACC and other local, recently-formed TNR groups. Other key projects included substance abuse clinics, a hospital, and an entire Brooklyn neighborhood. During this explosive period of growth, publicity continued to flow - Neighborhood Cats appeared in Best Friends magazine for its trapping efforts at Ground Zero, Alley Cat Action again wrote about us, the Rikers Island story appeared in the NY Times, the Daily News, the NY Post and other papers, as well as on local TV. Increasing name recognition, as well as fundraising assistance from the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, helped Neighborhood Cats to grow as an organization. In the fall of 2002, Neighborhood Cats introduced two new programs designed to further TNR - a feral cat food bank (open to the caretakers of neutered feral colonies) and a colony registration system for gathering data and eventually providing a statistical basis for evaluating the impact of TNR. On National Feral Cat Day (October 16, 2002), Neighborhood Cats was presented with an Award of Excellence from Alley Cat Allies as the Feral Cat Organization of 2002. At this point in our history, we continue to focus on spreading TNR by whatever means have the most impact. While we remain primarily concerned with New York City, we have accepted offers to speak and teach elsewhere in the metropolitan area and hope to eventually assist in those regions as well. TNR is an idea whose time has come and we, like it, will continue to grow. about | essays | board | back to top |
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Over the course of
the following months, the neighbors took on the colony in the lot. They
were limited to trapping and neutering one cat at a time as almost
no services for feral cats were available in New York City aside from a
few individual vets. 20 kittens were adopted out and 8 feral adults
returned. Winter shelters made of styrofoam were constructed and
feeding stations set up. The population stabilized, the cats' health
improved, and the community's attitude towards the cats grew positive
- it became clear that TNR had been a success. A decision was
then made to try to introduce TNR citywide as a solution to the crisis of
the at least tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of feral cats living in
the five boroughs.
