To the Editor:
The Hudson County Animal League, working in cooperation with the City of Bayonne, Companion Animal Trust, and Bayonne Feral Cat Foundation, is pleased to announce that the Bayonne Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) Pilot Program Phase One has launched.
Funded by a PetSmart Charities grant obtained by the city, this program will result in the spaying, neutering, and vaccination of 250 cats in downtown Bayonne, and it promises to make a great quality of life improvement for everyone in that area – pro-cat as well as anti-cat people, and the cats themselves. Tame cats and kittens will be taken off the streets for adoption. Unadoptable feral cats will be returned to where they were trapped, but they will no longer produce kittens or exhibit nuisance mating behavior, and they will be vaccinated for rabies and distemper.
Many thanks to the city for reaching out to us animal welfare folks to do this project in the first place, obtaining the grant, and providing a place to keep the cats before and after surgery. Many thanks to Companion Animal Trust for providing TNR certification training and guidance in organizing this endeavor; and to Bayonne Feral Cat Foundation for their cooperation. Many thanks also to several residents who’ve already come forward to help. We can always use more volunteers, though, and the project will go on until next September, so call (201) 200-1008 (option 7) or email kitty.omalley@gmail.com to sign up.
KATHLEEN O’MALLEY & CHARLENE DEVANEY
Hudson County Animal League TNR Coordinators