Port Authority workers are misleading cat lovers into believing the felines being evicted from Kennedy Airport will be placed in caring homes, outraged animal-adoption activists charged yesterday.
The airport’s feral cats – said to number in the dozens or the hundreds – are getting the boot because their food attracts birds dangerous to airplanes, the PA says.
People who have called the agency to complain are being told the cats will be offered for adoption, said Jane Hoffman of the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals, a nonprofit group.
“They are lying to the public by saying these animals will somehow be miraculously adopted,” Hoffman said.
A PA spokesman yesterday readily admitted that the cats will not be put up for adoption.
However, the spokesman, Pasquale DiFulco, wouldn’t admit that the felines the agency plans to round up in the coming weeks face a death sentence. “They will be in a safe place until they can be turned over to the proper authorities,” he said.
Animal Care and Control of New York City – the quasi-city agency that expects to take the cats – admitted that most will be euthanized.
“Typically, feral cats are unsuitable for adoption, so they are put down when they come in,” said ACC spokesman Richard Gentles.
“We don’t have the resources to rehabilitate them, even if they are rehabilitatable,” Gentles added.
Hoffman wants the Port Authority to trap the cats, neuter them, and return them to “inconspicuous shelters.”