Sunset Park Cats addresses feline overpopulation

It’s a Friday evening in early May when I meet Rose Martin, president of Sunset Park Cats, on Fourth Avenue between 60th and 61st streets. A local resident alerted her to a potential litter of kittens living in the small space behind the discount store and neighboring deli, and she arrives to assess the scene.

“If you find kittens in your backyard, the first thing you want to do is estimate their age,” she says, “because newborns, as we’re going to see in the back here, cannot be removed from their mother. That’s called kit-napping, and they’ll die in a few hours.”

Kittens aged 4 to 8 weeks can potentially be adopted, and kittens older than 8 weeks can be rescued and brought indoors on a case-by-case basis. Beyond that, feral mothers and fathers should be spayed and neutered to prevent further births as a means of chipping away at the monumental number of feral and stray cats on Brooklyn streets. That’s where Sunset Park Cats comes in.

Sunset Park Cats was founded in 2018. Rose joined in 2020 when she moved to a new apartment and found a colony of stray cats living outside her window. She got certified in TNR — trap, neuter and return — the predominant method for addressing feral cat populations. Since then, she estimates that she has performed TNR on more than 300 cats in Sunset Park, with more than 100 ending in adoptions.

“People are usually receptive,” she says, while setting up a camera in the store’s backyard, hoping to record kitten movement. “It is always about helping, never about judging. If people are not on board with a rescue, they have their own reasons, and we try to adjust our expectations and respect everyone.”

We see the mother flee upon our arrival, leaving one tiny kitten behind. Rose estimates her to be about 4 weeks old and in good health. She searches diligently beneath retired AC units and plastic tarps for signs of life. An adult cat perches in a tree overhead; another watches us from a neighboring yard. We return the following morning with more food and confirm that there is only the sole kitten.

Now, Rose begins her trapping routine. She leaves cans of food with the business owners and asks them to feed at a set schedule.

“Cat rescue is really about networking, because let’s say we do want to trap here, I need to control the food source.”

She asks neighboring businesses to temporarily halt feeding so that she can maintain control over feeding, ideally luring out the mother. On two separate days, she sets the trap and waits for hours before leaving empty-handed.

On the third day, the mother sets off the trap, and Rose takes both the mother and kitten to her home, where the mother will raise the kitten in confinement before she is spayed and likely returned to the Fourth Avenue yard where she came from.

Sunset Park Cats is, in many ways, a community project. Earlier this spring, a local family chose to self-deport and was forced to leave behind its beloved cat in the process. Sunset Park Cats intervened and quickly found that people wanted to step in and help, and the group found a home for that cat within days.

The group has three main members and a rotating group of fosters and volunteers who all contribute in their free time. One such volunteer, Elliott Blanchard, connected with the group after seeing on Instagram that they had recently trapped one of the ferals that he regularly feeds. Now, he’s offering shelter to an adult cat and a kitten until Sunset Park Cats can locate their forever homes.

And if you see a cat or kitten in your yard that has not been spayed or neutered? Try to confirm that it is not someone’s pet. Rose suggests taping a note to a breakaway collar. If it is a kitten, research online to estimate its age; determine whether your neighbors are feeding it; and contact Sunset Park Cats at info@sunsetparkcats.org for assistance.

“There are a lot of things that people can do in their neighborhood and in their own backyard to help cats,” Rose says. “They don’t have to take on the world. Talk to people and respect what the people and the cats want, and that’s really what it’s all about.”