Shea Cat Strut
In 1969 a black cat pranced in front of the Chicago Cubs dugout at Shea Stadium. The Mets went on to beat the Cubs for the National League East division title and won the World Series. The Shea strays have long been part of the stadium’s lore, sometimes scampering across the field during games.
Now, Bryan Kortis of Neighborhood Cats,
a Manhattan rescue group, wants the Mets to transplant “Shea Stadium’s feral felines to their new home at Citi Field. They’re part of Mets lore, so why not keep them around?”
A spokeswoman for the city Parks Department said Shea staff believes only a couple of cats live at the ballpark. Once captured, they are taken to shelters. Anthony Rizzo, the parks department coordinator at Shea, said yesterday he’s never seen cats at the stadium.
But Kortis estimates that the stadium may be home to 20 to 40 cats. Its proximity to Flushing Bay makes it a haven for rodents. “When they take out a tarp and roll it and a cat pops up … it’d be unlikely there’d only be one or two,” Kortis said.
The parks department says there is no plan to move the cats to Citi Field. Kortis said cats could be useful at the new ballpark. “They’re right near the water, and if they don’t have them, they’re going to be overrun with rats,” he said.
The Neighborhood Cats organization is dedicated 
to helping feral cats in the New York area. They are advocates of TNR — Trap-Neuter-Return — as the most effective method to end the feral cat overpopulation crisis faced in the United States. Their mission is to “make TNR a fully understood, accepted and practiced method in every community.” They’ve created award-winning educational materials, including books, videos, and online training focused on feral cat management. Click here for information on how to order their TNR kit and other educational materials.
- Read more about the Shea Cats
- Find out more about Neighborhood Cats, the feral cat experts
deer karen nicholz,
i red dis post wid grate intrest becuz shea stadium iz justa fyoo train stopz frum mi howse … den i noticed da TNR book dat i sumtimez reed wid mi dad (hoo, az u may or mayen’t know izza feral cat caretaker hizself) in fact, mi dad did a video fer da neighborhood catz abowt 3 yeerz ago.
yerz–jh
We hope they don’t try to move them. Mom tried moving a semi-feral cat once who she thought might be happier with a forever home. After moving her 5 miles away from the Swamp where Mom works into a nice home with our Uncle, getting her all her shots, etc, a week later she escaped. She literally chewed and clawed her way to brake through the screens on the screened porch to get back outside. She never returned to her former environment at the Swamp and a year later we are still wondering what happened to her.
We are strongly in favor of T-N-R.
We think TNR is a great way to go for cats who are feral. I wonder if there was a kitty involved in the Chicago Cubs getting swept out of California last night?
correkshun … correkshun … mi dad made copiez fer da neighborhood catz. ( i wuz disappointed dat he diden’t make da akshooal videotape.)
jh
RNT programs are grate. My aunt sissy is mooving to a lake house in Oklahoma with lotsa strays on the property. Thay eet birds and mice and rats, but thay breed and breed. Aunt Sissy is enuf of an animal lover that maybe she kood find a program to help those kitties.
TNR sownds like a grate program.
Do yoo think they can do sumthing to uncurse the cubbies? Maybe thay can spray gud luck poshun on the cats arownd wrigley? If so, that wuld be much appreshiated.
Those cats know a good giant litterbox whey they see one…..and a good place to get some food.
We hope they all get taken good care of.
TNR is a great program, I hope they use it and take care of these kitties. Our mommy is a volunteer for a TNR group in our town.
how cute. cats join in baseball LOL. that’ll cheer up the teams won’t they? I love that kitty. he’s so cute.