Riding herd on stray and feral Five Towns’ cats

Dr. Glenda Wexler, owner of Broadway Vet Care in Hewlett said the increasing population of stray cats has been a problem since she opened her veterinary practice nearly 20 years ago and people who feed them are making the problem worse.

“It’s not wrong to feed the cats but it’s insufficient to just feed them,” Wexler said. “In addition to budgeting for cat food, people also need to budget for neutering because feeding alone is a double edge sword.”

According to Wexler, feeding stray and feral cats has a negative impact on a community’s quality of life. . “Adjacent properties to people who feed cats are used as toilets,” she said. “There is also a population explosion.” Stray cats are defined as former pets left on the street by people who didn’t want to care for them anymore. A feral cat is one born outside of human contact and care.

Female cats produce six to 10 kittens twice a year, Wexler said. Trapping and neutering stray and feral cats can stop the explosive population. “Many of these animals cannot be touched,” she said. “They have to be trapped, brought in to be neutered and then can be released back where they were before.”

Wexler said she is looking to start a committee in the Five Towns that would encourage people to trap, neuter and release stray and feral cats. “Once you neuter a cat, they can live a healthy life,” she said. “I’m willing to coordinate the efforts, provide services and I have traps. A Five Towns committee of concerned cat people would be willing to help (cats) .... could get this problem under control.”

Jackie Mills, a 32-year Inwood resident, spends her weekends trapping stray and feral cats behind Bay Harbour Mall on Rockaway Turnpike in Lawrence. She takes them to get neutered before releasing them back where she found them or tries to find them homes. “More knowledge needs to get out,” Mills said. “Especially around here because it’s an epidemic. Kittens don’t follow the seasons, they follow the weather and since there hasn’t been a break in the kitten season because we haven’t really had a winter, I can’t keep up with trapping.”

Mills, who uses her basement as a recuperation area, has more than seven cages to take care of the cats. She spends her own money for food, supplies and veterinary care while receiving monetary and supply donations from time to time. “I do this out of the goodness of my heart,” she said. “I speak because they can’t.”

On Feb. 20, Mills got a call from the Freeport Animal Shelter that three kittens were found in a dumpster behind Kmart on Rockaway Turnpike. She is currently taking care of the kittens until she can find homes for them. “There are so many out there and they can live a log time as long as they’re fixed,” she said. “We need to get serious about this.”

Linda Silversmith has been rescuing animals for 25 years and said since she moved to Woodmere in 1985 there has been a large amount of homeless cats. “There are animals that need food and shelter but I don’t think there is an increase (in the stray cat population),” she said.

Silversmith thinks stray and feral cats can unite people for a common cause. “There’s been three families sharing one cat,” she said. “In snow storms we’re all concerned about the cats whereabouts so sometimes animals bring communities together.”

For more information about the committee, call Dr. Wexler at (516) 374-5050. To make a monetary or supply donation to Jackie Mills, email JMLS9779@gmail.com.