Coney Island may be the land of "nice Cappuccinos" now, but it's also become the stomping grounds for hundreds of feral cats. "The feral population there is tremendous; there's a lot more that needs to be done," said Susan Richmond, executive director of advocacy group Neighborhood Cats. Maybe they're among the few who really like the concretewalk?
The feral cat population has exploded in the city in the last decade; all over Queens and Staten Island, there have been many neighborhood debates about what to do with the feral felines. The Port Authority decided to euthanize thousands of feral cats that roamed JFK Airport's property in 2008. Dr. Andrew Kaplan, founder of the Toby Project, a group that spays and neuters the animals for free or a small fee, says that's an unacceptable scenario: "We allow the breeding to occur, adopt what we want, and kill the rest -- and that's not acceptable."
Amusing the Zillion notes that there’s a contingent of cat lovers who have been putting out food and water for Coney Island’s feral, stray and abandoned cat population since at least January. For more information on what you can do with stray cats in your neighborhood, check out The New York City Feral Cat Initiative. And if you had any thoughts of trying to turn your local feral cats into viral video gold, keep in mind that it involves a lot of green screens, animatics and purr charts.
