Feline troubles: Local filmmakers chronicle city’s cat crisis

When filmmakers Olivia Leyva and George K. Denison moved to Sunset Park in 2021, they found an overwhelming number of stray cats living behind their apartment building. “There was yowling, fights, lots of spraying from the male cats — the entire area smelled of urine,” Leyva recalled over coffee at Café Liebre, where I recently met up with the couple.

Leyva and Denison’s new film, New York Cat Crisis, documents the city’s cat overpopulation problem and the people working to solve it. There is a free screening of the film at Alpine Cinema on Oct. 17 at 8 p.m., and screenings in Sunset Park are in the works for November.

Both Leyva and Denison have always been animal people, so faced with a cat crisis in their own backyard, they wanted to help. After learning from a neighbor that the cats were all friendly (rather than feral) and had likely been pets before ending up on the street, Leyva and Denison took in a pregnant calico, who they called Cleo. Having just lost two elderly pets, they weren’t ready to adopt her themselves, but they figured there would be a city service they could call for support.

“In New York, we thought, there must be somebody. There must be a process,” Denison said. “But there wasn’t. You quickly realize you’re the process. Or these animals are just outside.”

Eventually, with the help of Brooklyn Cat Cafe and its rescue clinic, Leyva and Denison were able to get Cleo and many of the other cats fixed, but it was an arduous process that involved trapping them one or two at a time, taking them in for the surgeries, and caring for them as they recovered before adopting them out through the cafe.

Leyva and Denison initially started filming to help the adoption process, but as they connected with rescuers and learned more about the scope of the problem citywide, they were inspired to make New York Cat Crisis. Along with the cats, the film spotlights the work of rescuers, activists and policymakers who are committed to reducing the ever-growing outdoor feline population, as well as mortality rates — especially among kittens — and making it easier for people to keep and care for their pets.

One of the film’s subjects is Rose Martin, who also joined us at Café Liebre. She runs the rescue operation Sunset Park Cats. Along with a team of volunteers, Martin manages the neighborhood’s stray and feral cat populations, and gets about 40 cats fixed each month, which she says does not come close to meeting the demand.

“We have the people who want to do the work. They love animals. They feed them, but they can’t trap, they can’t hold, they can’t transport, and they cannot afford vet services,” Martin says. “So the will is there. The resources are not.”

Still, the film is coming out at a promising moment for animal welfare funding in the city. Leyva and Denison say it was a 2024 State of Animal Rescue Hearing, featured in their film, that really got the conversation started with the New York City Council, leading to a $500,000 line item in last year’s city budget to fund a low-cost spay and neuter program through Flatbush Cats. And in the fiscal year 2027 budget, funding increases to $1.5 million, split evenly between spay/neuter services and pet food pantries.

In a recent Instagram reel, animal rights advocate and Director of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Animal Welfare Allie Taylor said the 2027 funding “covers just 4% of the 200,000 spay/neuters needed annually to get ahead of the crisis,” adding, “This is a yearslong campaign ahead and we are here for it.”

Leyva, who grew up on Chicago’s Southwest Side in a neighborhood similar to Sunset Park, says that, along with rescue and vet services, translation is crucial: “You have to put the information where people can find it, and in their own languages.”

In their film, Leyva and Denison show the city’s cat crisis as part of the affordability crisis. Following rescuers like Martin as they worked, they saw cats left behind at the end of the month when people had to move or were evicted. “The issue of overpopulation of cats is an issue of people having financial problems,” Martin says. “They want to keep their pets. They don’t want to have to move to a different neighborhood that’s more affordable. They want to stay in their community.” And when people are able to keep their pets, there are fewer cats living — and dying — on the streets.

As they begin to share New York Cat Crisis with audiences, Leyva says the advocacy work of the film is to visually represent the improved quality of life for both cat and human communities around the city when cat overpopulation is addressed. As for the cats in the filmmakers’ own backyard, they all found homes — including Cleo, who is now a permanent member of Leyva and Denison’s household.

The full schedule of free screenings is available at newyorkcatcrisis.com/screenings.