Last winter, hundreds of stray cats took shelter in the Ravenswood Houses complex in Long Island City. Many of the cats are still there, mostly inhabiting the small crawl spaces in the buildings.

Residents of the complex and the surrounding area, including SaveKitty organization President Debi Romano, reacted passionately in defense of the cats when the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) suggested two possibilities to control the growing feline population: capturing the cats and transferring them to animal shelters or sealing up the crawl spaces with the risk of trapping the animals and leaving them to starve to death.

Searching for the most humane way possible to handle the problem, Romano suggested a trap-neuter-return (TNR) system to the NYCHA, that would allow the cats to remain on the streets without their reproducing and adding to the problem. Her idea was rejected, though, and the NYCHA proceeded to seal the crawl spaces, trapping entire families of cats within them.

According to an update on the SaveKitty Web site, Mayor Michael Bloomberg was alerted to the issue and recently gave Romano, as well as other volunteers, permission to go into Ravenswood alongside NYCHA employees to release the cats. The update includes a video of several cats peeking through the crawl spaces, one of which had been trapped for over a week without food or water. These cats have since been rescued.

Information about the SaveKitty effort can be found on www.savekitty.org, where one can donate to the cause and keep updated concerning the rescue mission. Approximately 75 cats and kittens have been rescued over the past several months, many of which still need homes and are available for adoption on the SaveKitty Web site.

–Cristina Guarino