Stephanie Wissinger, President of Little Wanderers, leads a rescue organization focused on the Bronx. The cat crisis is boiling over citywide, but the Bronx is in the eye of they storm, where the largest scale of the problem is met with the least resources.

Jean Bubley volunteers as an adoption coordinator at For Animals, a non-profit rescue in Queens, New York. She talked to us about Marcel, a cat that had been overlooked for too long.

In the pilot episode of our podcast Catastrophe, Rose Martin and Laila Sultana discuss the challenges of being independent trappers in the most resource-deprived environment that cat rescuers have ever faced in NYC.

We need New York to step up and help with the cat situation. We have animal cruelty laws that are not being enforced, the repercussions should be harsher. People are poisoning cats. We need a better support system.

Only private rescuers are currently offering (at their own expense) to capture, house, offer vet services, transportation, spay/neuter, vaccinate against rabies and other diseases, and arrange eventual adoption of kittens.

I TNR every cat that shows up. If they are friendly I get them homes, if they are injured, I get them care all at my own expense or with a system of mutual aid from other rescuers.

I got involved in cat rescue when I started walking Bruno, my daughter’s dog. I noticed a lot of cats in the street, looking for food, very skinny.

We need spay/neuter appointments that are nearby, we need holding space for large projects. I can hold one cat in my bathtub, but when you have many cats to spay/neuter, then you can’t do a large project that way.