Newly elected Pope Benedict XVI's well-known love of stray
cats apparently is not shared by the Dominican Nuns of the Corpus Christi
Monastery in the Bronx, New York. The Mother Superior has ordered the
removal of seven feral cats who are almost all neutered, rabies vaccinated
and have lived on the monastery's five acres for the past eight years. In
a decision backed by the Archdiocese of NY, the plan is to first try to
force the cats to leave by withholding all food and starving them. Then if
they don't go on their own, the resident Sisters will trap them and hand
them over to the city. Shelter workers would be forced to euthanize the
cats because they are feral and unadoptable and have nowhere else to be
placed.
The Vicar of the Religious Office of the Archdiocese,
Sister Helen C., stated, "my compassion does not extend to these animals"
and "they will be removed eventually, one way or another."
"The plan is not only cruel for depriving these cats of
their long-time home and causing their suffering and likely deaths. It is
ineffective feral cat population control" said Bryan Kortis the Executive
Director of Neighborhood Cats, Inc., a leading feral cat organization and
a member of the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals. "Maintaining neutered
feral colonies, using a method known as Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), is the
only proven way to reduce feral numbers in the long term. Otherwise, new
unneutered cats will simply replace the ones removed and the cycle of
suffering and killing will go on indefinitely."
Over the past eight years, at their own expense,
volunteers have removed nine cats from the grounds of the monastery and
placed them in homes. The cats too wild to be adopted were neutered and
returned, stopping their reproduction, and were then fed by the nuns. Now,
however, the nuns and the Archdiocese refuse to even meet with animal
advocates to discuss the situation.
To protest this heartless and ill-guided assault on the
cats, please contact the Corpus Christi Monastery and the Archdiocese of
NY by phone, email or fax (see below). Let them know we expect more from
our religious leaders than pointless cruelty towards innocent animals.
Corpus Christi Monastery
phone: 718-328-6996
fax: 718-328-1974
email:
[email protected]
Archdiocese of NY
phone: 212-371-1000 (ask for Public Relations or Vicar of the Religious
Office)
fax: 212-826-6020
email: (not given)
Go on to Recipe for a
Reformed Cannibal
Return to 10 July 2005 Issue
Return to Newsletters
** Fair Use Notice**
This document may contain copyrighted material, use of which has not been
specifically authorized by the copyright owners. I believe that this
not-for-profit, educational use on the Web constitutes a fair use of the
copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law). If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your
own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright
owner.