The East Hills board of trustees is allocating up to $7,000 toward an initiative to spay and neuter about 30 feral cats wandering the village.
Trustees said they are finalizing an agreement with the Howard Beach-based All About Spay Neuter, whose services are frequently used by the Town of North Hempstead, to trap the cats at the village’s 10 feeding stations and later return them to the community.
“There really aren’t many companies that do this, and this company provides adoption services as well, so if there are kittens, they can help us on that end,” said Trustee Stacey Siegel, who is spearheading the program. “Other [spay and neuter services], you never know what they’re doing when they release the animals, but I’ve had a relationship with this organization for awhile.”
Siegel said the village is “still going through the legalities” of the agreement and also plans to seek state funding to cut contract costs.
She added the village is still considering contingency options in the event a domesticated cat is trapped by All About Spay Neuter, saying “you can easily tell” when a cat has been spayed or neutered because the tip of its ear is typically flattened.
“They’re pretty good about [identifying feral cats] but essentially the cat would have most likely already been spayed and neutered,” Siegel said. “I would think if you have a house cat that you’re allowing to go outdoors, you’d have gotten it spayed.”
The plan is the latest attempt by a Roslyn village to curtail what officials consider a growing feral cat population within the community.
Last fall, the Village of Roslyn Estates proposed and ultimately abandoned a local law to prohibiting the feeding of undomesticated animals.
Roslyn Estates Mayor Jeff Schwartzberg at the time said the village received complaints from residents about others leaving food on their properties unattended, but the complaints subsided when the board began drafting the legislation.
“We just didn’t think it was worth pursuing,” he said.
Wildlife advocate Wendy Bonczek said Monday she supports the East Hills plan so long as its executed in a humane fashion.
“I feel very bad for the animals, but at the same time some people don’t want them on their properties, and I understand that,” said Bonczek, a Roslyn Heights resident. “It’s still up to the good people, however many of us are out there, to try and highlight this, to bring more attention to this, because the cats multiply so fast.”
