The Daily News is reporting that Superior Court Judge Thomas McKnew ruled Friday that the city had "secretly and unofficially" promoted a practice of allowing feral cats to run free, while promising to conduct an environmental review.
Given the known deleterious effects of feral cat colonies on populations of sometimes endangered native species of birds and other wildlife, and the non-native status of the domestic cat (it evolved in North Africa and the Middle East), the maintenance of feral cat colonies has never made any sense to me. They also contribute to the spread of often deadly diseases to owned cats, and pose a human health threat due to uncontrolled zoonotic diseases.
We'll see how this turns out. I predict a rather contentious legal process.
