At the Town of Islip’s Feb. 11 meeting, many residents spoke about the ongoing overpopulation crisis of stray and feral cats. Many urged the town board to come up with a solution to help fund and support TNR programs: trap, neuter, release.

Cats can have between three to six kittens per litter. They can also carry another litter as soon as three weeks postpartum. If they aren’t found and taken to a veterinarian or shelter, these cats grow up on the streets, which then creates a nuisance in neighborhoods.

Last year in July, a feral cat in Nassau County tested positive for rabies.

Tender Loving Cats was founded in January 2017 by Rebecca Caro as an all-volunteer, not-for-profit organization that aims to help cats, whether they’re abandoned by their owners or stray. The organization doesn’t aim to just find cats a loving home, but rather help enforce a trap-neuter-release. This ensures that cats who are adopted are neutered, and stray cats living in the streets are neutered and cannot reproduce.

In 2024, TLC spent $30,000 spaying and neutering feral cats in the Town of Islip. Caro wants the town to help financially or implement a program that assists with the medical costs.

“I expect the town of Islip to come up with their own voucher program, their own town-funded TNR clinics, or contribute funds to those local rescues who are spending a majority of their funding already in the township,” Caro said. “Creating a low-cost program is not hard, but does require training on the part of the shelter staff and volunteers on how to advise and teach the public how to humanely trap, transport, and recover these cats. In this way, I’d be happy to help them train staff and volunteers, as well as help advise on how this program can be run effectively and efficiently.”

In 2019, TLC began the Prevent-A-Litter program, PAL, to help the stray cat epidemic on Long Island. On average, the program neuters 400 to 500 cats each year, and in 2023 they hit a record of 682 spay/neuters that were made possible thanks to the help of volunteer trappers.

However, one of the main veterinarians that Tender Loving Cats uses, Island Rescue, is raising the cost of their neutering and spaying services 30 percent, from $90 to $120. Despite it being more affordable compared to the average cost of neutering, there is a surplus of cats under the care of TLC that need these services.

Ellen Mackey has worked as a full-time nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital for over 20 years and helps maintain cat colonies. She spoke to the town board.

“Say I make a decent living, I’m spending 20 to 30 percent of my income to fix cats, and I’ve been doing that for this many years, for over two decades,” Mackey said. “...If you look at the math and see how fast a population can grow, we need this program.”

Anyone who wishes to donate, or volunteer can head to www.tenderlovingcats.org.