The law had been debated and agreed (A 2778/S 1081). It only required the signature of Governor Cuomo for this bill to become law which would formalize trap-neuter-return programs (TNR) in New York state and which would have made provision for some state funding of the TNR programs.
This law would have been a major endorsement at state level of this much debated and somewhat controversial but humane method of controlling feral cat populations. But unless some legislative steps are taken to overcome Governor Cuomo’s blocking of the bill it will not become law.
Guess who convinced the Governor to reject the legislation? A damned ornithologist, the Director of Invasive Species Programs for American Bird Conservancy whose name is Grant Sizemore. He said:
“By vetoing this proposed legislation, Governor Cuomo has acted with vision and courage to protect the wildlife of New York,” commented Grant Sizemore, Director of Invasive Species Programs for American Bird Conservancy, noting that studies have shown that free-roaming cats kill billions of birds in the U.S. each year.
“This bill was an effort to legitimize the systematic abandonment of cats,” Sizemore continued, “and to inappropriately require that public funds prop up a failed TNR strategy. We hope that other law-makers draw inspiration from this decision and recognize TNR is a ‘lose, lose, lose’ scenario for cats, wildlife, and people.”
By the look of it, these are the words of a dyed-in-the-wool bird lover and cat hater who has a distorted view on feral cat predation and who actually believes the poor and inaccurate studies on feral cat predation of native species. He is misinformed and he is providing misinformation to the Governor in my honest opinion although I am speculating of course.
When conducted properly (and funding obviously helps a lot) TNR works well. It is the only humane way of controlling feral cat populations and increasingly we read about effective TNR programs being adopted by local authorities.
One of the sponsors of the bill, Assemblyman James Tedisco says he will fight on and try and convince his colleagues to override the Governor’s veto at the next session. He is very disappointed as will be millions of people involved with TNR.
Click this to read another earlier page on this story.
i live in ny state. cuomo is up for re-
election soon. we vote this turkey out!
most have made methimazole illegal a
human hyperthroid drug, not ny.
they now have femimazole for cats. i would recomend to any using this compound to go to hills y/d imeaditely
synthetic chemicals are not good for
a cat.
For the price of a little peer reviewing the bird people are pushing their highly personalized and distorted study as “science.”
They are pushing these misleading studies. Some of these scientists are biased too. What annoys me is that there is room for compromise. It doesn’t have to be a war between cat and bird advocates.
Being born and raised as a New Yorker this Governor has put our colonies in danger of being abused,tortured and murdered,I have emailed his office 2 times and they have yet to reply back,I even said in the email that I am now sorry I voted him in as our Governor!
Well done Irish, I love you for that. You are a gutsy lady.
<<<winks at Michael :O)
That governor is an idiot !!!! I’m so glad i don’t live in new york anymore….
I totally agree. He is an idiot and he has this wrong, swayed by the bird lobby it seems.
I am so very sick of hearing about cats killing birds !!! This is a cats world too and they are just acting on instinct..they use the tools that millions of years of evolution has given them to survive…why don’t humans do more complaining about destroying the big cat population ?? It all just seems so unfair to me…
The bird lobby always raise this misleading argument that cats kill precious native species of birds. As you say humans do far more damage to birds and in any case cats kill less birds than the bird conservationists state. It irritates me and has done for years. Now the governor, in his ignorance I am sorry to say, has got it wrong.
I agree with you %100..
Makes me not at all proud to be a New Yorker. If I went on about the governor, you wouldn’t be able to print my dismay. Understand that not spaying and neutering will create a LARGER cat population, wilder, less likely to be adopted and less likely to be fed. However, this is the governor who helped his father try to win the NYC mayoralty using sexual orientation slurs. I wonder what his orthinologist advisor would think of the City of Syracuse, NY which successfully rid itself of its pigeon problem using birth control in 1973. Humans create the problems and then don’t have the good sense to repair them. End of rant.
I always liked you governor, como until I heard about you did not want to you just wanted to kill the cats the feral cats I was in a place where I try to save as many feral kittens as I could it’s not their fault they were not born with a family and for you to decide do not trap them fix them and return them is the most awful thing awful I ever heard in my life I am so sick about this how how could you do this to them
Thanks Cinda for commenting. His decision was a great setback for all feral cats because if NY had made this law it would have influenced other states quite possibly.