KERHONKSON – "Purricane," the article regarding a cat infestation in the Maple Avenue/Turkey Hill community that ran in the Journal two weeks ago has caused the claws to come out in animal-lovers and activists from around the community. And since Friday, October 16, is National Feral Cat Day (according to Alley Cat Allies' website), we thought we'd follow up on the issue.

To summarize, Kerhonkson resident Debbie Weller raised concerns about the abundance of feral cats that can be found on and around her property, a situation for which she's found no relief from town, county, or state agencies. In fact, there happens to be no legislation regarding the control of feral cat populations in New York State, despite the fact that there are laws regarding the treatment and control of stray dogs, which are regarded as domestic animals along with cats, and laws governing animals that are classified as non-domestic. In short, there's a large legal gray area regarding what's to be done with feral felines.

Shortly after the article ran, Dr. Linda Tintle of the Wurtsboro Veterinary Clinic sent an e-mail discussing her plans on showing the article to the legislative issues attorney for the New York State Veterinary Medical Society, on whose board Tintle serves as Hudson Valley's representative.

Tintle says that she was showing her colleagues the article in conjunction with "a discussion that we're having about what we can do to try to address the problems of feral cat control and the lack of regulations at this point. It's a really complicated issue."

Also making her voice heard was Helen Mendoza, director of the Animal Welfare Adoption Network, who wrote in to extol the virtues of a method of cat population control that was not addressed in the previous article: Trap, Neuter, Release, or TNR.

Mendoza writes in the e-mail that TNR "is a cheap and fairly easy way to limit a feral colony's population….Killing feral cats sounds like an easy fix…but it never really works."

According to Feral Feline.org, "After a feral cat has been spayed or neutered, screened for FeLV and FIV [feline-leukemia and -immunodeficiency virus], and has received a rabies vaccine, it is returned to its original colony where it can live out a full, healthy, non-reproductive life."

However, other organizations have spoken out against TNR, such as Project Cat, an Accord-based rescue and adoption not-for-profit, which was referred to in the previous article. Gail Mihocko, the founder of Project Cat, says that the TNR issue is not so cut and dry.

"Even if we spayed and neutered however many cats there are, a lot of people don't want 50 or 60 cats running around their neighborhood, their tiny little street," she says. "They're still going to defecate and urinate, they're still going to spray, marking their territories, they're still going to go after wildlife."

Mihocko says that few feral cats can survive in the wild on their own, and as such, unpleasant though it may be, euthanizing the cats is sometimes the solution if the cat that's trapped is already sick.

"What if they've got a really bad upper respiratory infection, which is highly contagious?" Mihocko asks. "I don't think it's very healthy to put a cat under surgery that's already sick, and to release it when it's sick. I think if you're going to take it and want to take responsibility for the cat, I think you need to go further than neutering and vaccinating."

She also made sure to clarify her role in the situation on Maple Avenue; while it was reported in our article that she refused to come back to the area until she was paid up front for her services, Mihocko explains that it was somewhat more complicated than that. Apparently, after being called there three years ago, she dealt with some uncooperative neighbors who were only willing to have the female cats spayed. Mihocko saw that the situation would never be resolved, and couldn't afford to invest any more funds or time in that area without assistance.

And while we're back on the subject of the Maple Avenue community, another e-mail was sent by a disgruntled neighbor, upset about the complaints Weller made about the cats in the first place.

"I live on Turkey Hill and like most of my neighbors, I have cats," she writes. "Weller is already referred to among neighbors as 'the cat killer.' It will not help her to assimilate if she threatens our pets and the ambiance in our neighborhood."

The neighbor refused to be interviewed for the story, but she did offer reports that perhaps the cat population has begun dwindling already — and makes an accusation as to why.

"Many of the Turkey Hill neighborhood cats are possibly missing," she writes. "They haven't been by to visit since around the time your story came out. Maybe you should do a follow-up story. Is it safe to let my little darlings play outside again or are they still in danger? We, the neighbors, want to know."