A feline advocacy group filed a authorized problem this week towards the Nationwide Park Service over its plan to take away cats from the San Juan Nationwide Historic Web site in Puerto Rico.
The Maryland-based nonprofit Alley Cat Allies filed the lawsuit on Wednesday arguing that the Park Service’s plan is not only “merciless, futile, and illegal” but additionally “ignited a firestorm of opposition from each the area people and worldwide supporters.”
In a assertion, Coryn Julien, communications director for Alley Cat Allies, argued that cats “are adored by locals and vacationers alike” and that they’re “woven into the material of Puerto Rican tradition” as they’ve lived peacefully on the historic web site for generations.
“Now they face a lethal risk from the NPS, which is decided to take away the cats from their pure outside houses and their group, together with by deadly means,” Julien mentioned.
In January, the Park Service launched a 10-page plan to handle the free-ranging cat inhabitants on the historic web site. The company defined that the aim of the plan was to enhance security, shield assets, and scale back the impression on native wildlife as “[t]he free-ranging cat is an invasive species in any habitat.”
The choices thought-about included trapping, eradicating feeding stations, including repellants, habitat modification, and exclusion gadgets. Phrases like “euthanize” and “terminate” have been talked about if cats couldn’t be socialized or habituated at a shelter. In response to NPS analysis, roughly 200 cats are roaming the location.
Together with the plan, Myrna I. Palfrey, the superintendent of the San Juan Nationwide Historic Web site, launched a assertion arguing that the plan will assist with “pet abandonment” points on the park and all through Puerto Rico.
Nevertheless, the lawsuit argues that the Park Service failed to contemplate significant alternate options that place extra emphasis on “addressing the underlying reason for the expansion within the cat inhabitants” and bettering the longstanding Entice-Neuter-Return (TNR) program.
Yonaton Aronoff, a lawyer representing Alley Cat Allies, argued that the Park Service plan “not solely lacks scientific backing and is doomed to fail but additionally flouts environmental safety statutes, setting the stage for the mindless slaughter of scores of cats.”
