A Bayonne City Hall employee, who is also a member of the Companion Animal Rescue & Education (CARE), helped organize an animal rescue of at least 40 cats from an abandoned building on 24th Street late last year.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
After receiving word from City Council Secretary Beth Polera in late 2016 that at least 40 cats were living without people in the house, Mayor Jimmy Davis asked that the problem be addressed immediately, city spokesman Joe Ryan said in a news release.
City Community and Cultural Affairs Officer Dorothy Roszkowski, a member of the CARE organization, set up a visit to the house with volunteers.
The house, which is in foreclosure, is owned by a bank in Florida and the bank gave permission to Roszkowski to enter the building to help the cats.
The volunteers counted 40 cats in the home and they had not been fed for some undetermined amount of time. The group trapped the cats humanely, and moved them to a secure location that the city did not disclose.
Of the original group of animals, eight died of starvation, due to the lack of food since the departure of their previous owners. Roszkowski and others then brought the remaining 32 animals to local veterinarians and animal hospitals, officials said.
10 of the remaining 32 cats have been vaccinated, spayed or neutered and one of the animals required a tooth extraction, Ryan explained.
Davis thanked the City of Bayonne’s Health Division for helping to coordinate activities with the various parties involved with the cats.
He also credited the Cxty’s animal control contractor, NJ Animal Control and Rescue, for providing traps and animal carriers, extracting the cats from the house, and transporting the cats to People for Animals in Hillside.
The latter organization has spayed and neutered cats, and has assisted with finding people to foster or adopt the animals.
Additionally, NJ Animal Control and Rescue has provided an employee to assist the City with the cats “every step of the way,” according to Roszkowski.
Ryan did not have the exact date of when the rescue took place, stating only that it took place in late 2016.
The cost of providing initial healthcare has cost an average of $100 per cat and funds are needed to provide healthcare services to the other 22 cats.
The CARE Organization has set up a post office box to receive donations to pay for veterinary services for the animals.
Anyone interested in donating to assist the cats should write a check payable to The CARE Organization, P.O. Box 4252, Bayonne, NJ 07002.
Please write “24th Street Cats†in the memo portion of the check to ensure that your donation will go to this particular group of animals.
To discuss donations of goods or of time, please call 201-858-6011, in order to coordinate activities with the organizers.
