Hundreds of stray cats that roam a historic seaside tourist area of Puerto Rico's capital, where they're considered both a delight and a nuisance, will be removed over the coming year under a plan unveiled Tuesday by the National Park Service. The NPS says it will contract an animal welfare organization to remove the 200 cats estimated to live on 75 acres surrounding a fortress at the San Juan National Historic Site that the federal agency operates in Old San Juan. If the organization fails to remove the cats within six months, the park service says it will hire a removal agency.
Cat lovers responded to the plan with dismay, reports the AP, but the agency notes that the felines can transmit illnesses to humans. "All visitors will benefit from the removal of a potential disease vector from the park," the NPS plan states. The six-month timetable to remove the cats is unrealistic, says Ana Maria Salicrup, secretary of the board of directors for the nonprofit Save a Gato, which currently helps care for the cats and which hopes to be chosen to implement the plan. "Anyone who has worked with cats knows that is impossible," Salicrup says. "They are setting us up for failure."
Cats of all sizes, colors, and temperaments meander the seaside trails surrounding a 16th-century fortress known as "El Morro" overlooking an expanse of deep turquoise waters in the northwestern point of the San Juan capital. Some are thought to be descendants of colonial-era cats, while others were brought to the capital by legendary San Juan Mayor Felisa Rincon de Gautier to kill rats in the mid-20th century. Since then, they've multiplied into the hundreds. Save a Gato feeds, spays, and neuters cats and places them for adoption. About two years ago, federal officials said the population had grown too much and that the "encounters between visitors and cats and the smell of urine and feces are ... inconsistent with the cultural landscape."
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Last year, the NPS held a hearing as part of a plan it said would improve the safety of visitors and employees and protect cultural and natural resources. It offered two options: Remove the cats or keep the status quo. Those who attended overwhelmingly rejected the first option, with one man describing the cats as "one of the wonders of Old San Juan." The NPS plan says the group selected will be tasked with deciding whether cats will be adopted, placed in foster care, kept in a shelter, or face other options. Salicrup says it's hard to find homes for so many cats, and that Save a Gato has reached out to sanctuaries in the US mainland. "The response always is, 'You cannot bring 100 cats here,'" she says. The NPS notes the six-month deadline to trap cats may be extended if it sees progress.
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