To the Editor:

The Hudson County Animal League is honored to project manage the City of Bayonne’s Trap, Neuter, Return (TNR) pilot program’s phase one, which will spay or neuter about 250 feral cats in the downtown section of the city between Sept. 2012 and Sept. 2013. It promises to improve quality of life for both cats and people in that part of Bayonne. The city has obtained a generous grant from PetSmart Charities, but this only pays for the spaying or neutering of the cats and provides very limited supplies.

HCAL needs you for the City of Bayonne’s TNR pilot program. To help make this project a success, we need volunteers and donations.

We need trappers. You don’t have to be experienced in TNR to do this, but it is a plus. Also having a car is a plus. This activity includes some or all of the following: setting traps, watching traps, carrying traps with cats in them, transporting trapped cats to the holding area, and returning cats to their habitat after surgery. Surgery days are Mondays, so trapping is usually done Thursdays through Sundays in the early morning or evening. Cats are released one to three days after sugery.

We need feeders and cleaners. We’ll have to feed about 15 cats and clean cat traps before and after surgery in the holding area. The cats need to be fed morning and evening. The days on which we need feeders and cleaners will vary, but we can pretty much use someone any day of the week.

We need holding spaces. We need a space where we can keep 15 to 20 cats in traps at a time, and the city can’t offer us one. Do you have a garage or basement that is easily accessible for bringing in three-feet-long cat traps and is climate controlled? We need a 12-feet-by-18-feet area, minimum.

We need donations. The grant doesn’t pay for food and we will have to feed 250 cats for about five days apiece. That’s 1,250 (5.5 ounce) cans of cat food! We also need rubber gloves, paper towels, spray bleach, trash bags, a ton of clean newspapers, and plastic sheets to protect floors and tables.

If you can help, email Kathleen at kitty.omalley@gmail.com or call HCAL at (201) 437-7263 or (201) 200-1008.

HUDSON COUNTY ANIMAL LEAGUE