This was posted in the comments.. too long for a comment, but worth a read: ****** Alley Cat Allies Responds To Request From Local Groups to Help Save Feral Cats at J.F.K. Airport National Organization Cites Recent Harris Survey: Americans Don’t Want Feral Cats Killed in Animal Shelters Bethesda, MD November 2, 2007—Alley Cat Allies has responded to a request for assistance by the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals and other local organizations to help save the lives of feral cats living on the grounds of J.F.K. Airport. The organization has reached out to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and has requested a moratorium on all trapping until a humane solution for the feral cat colonies can be discussed. As the national advocates for feral cats, Alley Cat Allies has successfully intervened on behalf of threatened feral cat colonies across the country. Last year, Alley Cat Allies negotiated with representatives from the Army Navy Club in Arlington, VA when plans to trap and kill a colony of feral cats living on the property were announced. The cats were safely relocated to a remote area of the property and are vaccinated, spayed and neutered. Alley Cat Allies hopes a similar relocation plan can be implemented for the feral cats living at the 5,000 acre airport. The Port Authority claims the cats pose a risk, because their food attracts birds that could fly into and damage aircraft engines. Becky Robinson, President and co-founder of Alley Cat Allies says removing the cats is not a solution. “Birds are an issue at every airport around the world,” says Robinson. “It is ludicrous to assume that simply removing these cats will reduce the bird population at J.F.K.” Robinson points out that the airport is situated on the waterfront next to the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. Alley Cat Allies has appealed to the Port Authority to consider Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) as a solution. A properly managed feral cat colony would assure that food is not available to the birds or other animals. TNR is the recognized non-lethal method of managing outdoor cat populations. With TNR, stray and feral cats already living outdoors are humanely trapped, vaccinated, and spay or neuter by veterinarians. Kittens and social cats are adopted into good homes. Healthy feral cats are returned to their outdoor habitats where an organized program of feeding and sheltering the cats is carried out by volunteers. “Trapping feral cats and bringing them to animal control—where they will be killed—is not a humane solution and we know that Americans are not in support of this cruel practice,” said Becky Robinson. A recent national survey conducted by Harris Group for Alley Cat Allies reveals that an overwhelming majority of Americans — 81% — believes that leaving a stray cat outside to live out his life is more humane than having the cat caught and killed. These results reveal a significant disparity between the public’s humane ethic and the operating policy of most U.S. animal pounds and shelters. “Americans need to understand that the killing of feral cats, like those at J.F.K. airport, happens every day around this nation. Contacting animal control agencies to remove outdoor cats is handing these animals an immediate death sentence,” said Robinson. Feral cats are not a threat to humans. They are not socialized to humans and cannot be adopted, so most shelters kill them. Not only is this practice cruel, it is also a waste of money and resources and is not effective in reducing the total number of cats who live outdoors. Respondents to the Harris survey were also asked to consider the most humane outcome if they were to assume the stray cats would be hit and killed by a car in two years; 72 percent said it was still more humane to let the cat live out his natural life. The Alley Cat Allies survey also found that more than two in five Americans have put out food or water for a stray cat, with more than one in five respondents reporting to have done so in the past year. For a full copy of results from the Harris survey, “U.S. Public Opinion on Humane Treatment of Stray Cats” visit http://alleycat.org/PublicOpinionPoll. About Alley Cat Allies The mission of Alley Cat Allies is to protect the lives and promote the wellbeing of our nation’s population of stray and feral cats, and to end the killing of cats in animal control pounds and shelters – the number one documented cause of cat death in the United States. Since 1990, Alley Cat Allies and its 150,000 supporters and volunteers have pursued this mission nationwide through educational and outreach programs. Alley Cat Allies also advocates for the use of Trap-Neuter-Return programs to control reproduction of cats. Visit Alley Cat Allies on the Internet at http://www.alleycat.org.