Despite Challenges, Bayonne's Feral Cat Program Proving Effective, Officials Say

BAYONNE, NJ - Bayonne’s catch, neuter, and release program is working towards efforts to cut down on the number of feral cats in the city, officials say, despite limited resources and a recent rumor that has circulated online.

Earlier this year, the Bayonne City Council allocated $25,000 to fund the program, an amount that officials say is working to help reduce the birth rate of non-domesticated felines.

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Last week, a colony of 37 cats was relocated from Bayonne Dry Dock, a response, TAPinto Bayonne was told, to safety and health issues, both to the animals and to workers at the site. land leased by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Bayonne Dry dock, officials said, retained not-for-profit organization, Trapping Cats East Coast, Inc., to trap, neuter and relocate the 37 feral felines including kittens and intact adults from the area between April 16th and April 18th.

Under a program established by the City of Bayonne, caretakers of colonies are required to register with the city to get a voucher to cover the $110 cost to neuter the male and female cats. Each cat to be neutered would have to be registered with the city as well.

People with registered colonies collect the cats that need to be neutered and bring them to Bayonne City Hall, where the NJ Humane Society, based in West New York, which handles the city’s animal control needs, retrieves them, brings them to be neutered and then brings them back to the original colony.

There is a delay because the animals need to be fed and housed during a brief quarantine before being returned to their colonies. Each cat is neutered and gets shots for rabies and has the tip of their ear nipped to show it has been neutered.

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“It’s been going very well, and a lot of cats have been done,” Suzanne Cavanaugh, Bayonne’s Director of Municipal Services, said, acknowledging an issue that Council President Gary LaPelusa brought up, that the veterinarian that had been administering the procedures retired, and not many vets want to get involved with feral cats.

“Mayor Davis, the City’s Administration, our council members, the Bayonne Police Department, and the Bayonne Health Department are very concerned about the welfare of any and all animals in the City, whether domesticated or feral,” Cavanaugh said. “The City of Bayonne has provided a round of funding dedicated to our TNR program.  Our Health Department has successfully collaborated with community residents to navigate the City’s highly successful program to spay and neuter Bayonne feral cats over the past year.”

To date, the city has provided program services to over 130 feral cats and will continue the pilot program until the allocated funds have been exhausted, Cavanaugh added.

Because one unaltered female feral cat can produce up to 200 kittens in her lifetime the program, Cavanaugh said, has decreased the feral cat population in Bayonne by thousands.

“Currently our services are on a temporary hold until we can secure new veterinarian services, and we look forward to getting restarted,” she said.

Despite what local officials have defined as success, some animal activists, including Karen McCabe, have turned to their community to raise funds to help with the situation.

“I have traps and offers of assistance by transporters, etc., and I’m ready to go on this. I just need funding. Please, help me to help these cats before an already out of control situation becomes any worse. Any amount is most appreciated,” McCabe said.

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