WHO WE ARE
SaveKitty Foundation is no-kill, all-volunteer Queens-based rescue group that helps New York City's homeless and abandoned animals. We are not a shelter; the cats we have available for adoption are cared for in our homes. SaveKitty Foundation is a non-profit, (501c3) organization that is funded almost entirely by private donations.
Debi Romano, President
Rosary Immordino, Executive Director
Brenda Chiarello, Secretary
Sandra Conway
Yvonne Wester
Elaine Lee
WHAT WE DO
TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return)
Many well-meaning, compassionate people feed stray and feral (shy and unadoptable) cats. But feeding, by itself, only perpetuates the cat overpopulation problem. Feeding is most effective when it is done as part of a program of colony management which includes feeding, providing bad-weather shelter for the cats, and performing Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR).
Left: Goldie & Ms. Cali, two members of a Jackson Heights colony, peering through a screen door, waiting
for their caretaker to feed them. Right: Creamsickle & Graystone, members of the same colony. Nearby,
out of sight, are several insulated shelters that protect them from the cold and rain.
TNR involves humanely trapping a cat, having it spayed or neutered, and then returing it back to its colony. TNR is considered by experts in the field, and by us, to be the most humane solution to the homeless cat problem.
Left: First, the cat is trapped in a humane trap. (Some cats, like this one, outsmart the trapper and get the food
without being trapped.) Center: Caring for the cat before and after the surgery is an important part of TNR.
Right: Once the cat has recovered from the surgery, it is returned to its colony.
Colony management provides many benefits to the cats and to the community:
- It reduces the number and suffering of starving cats and kittens.
- Improves the health and lifespan of the cats.
- Eliminates the problems of cats fighting and howling at night and the odor from unaltered males "spraying" (marking their territory.)
- Over time, results in a dramatic reduction in the size of the colony through low or zero birth rate and attrition.
ADOPTION
In the process of doing TNR we come across many friendly stray cats and kittens. We don't return them to the streets, as we do with feral cats. Instead, we take them into foster care and commit ourselves to placing them in loving homes.
(Some people believe any feral cat can be turned around eventually and we would love to save them all. But, in reality we cannot. So we save the ones we can.)
RESCUE
We also rescue animals from the streets, basements, alleyways and abandoned buildings of Queens and other NYC neighborhoods, and from desperate situations, where their lives may be in danger. Mostly, we are called upon to rescue cats, but we also rescue dogs, rabbits, birds, etc.
WHAT WE'VE ACCOMPLISHED
We have performed TNR on thousands of feral cats, significantly reducing the number of stray and feral cats in New York city.
Each year we place hundreds of friendly cats and kittens in loving homes.
We provide food, shelter, care and TNR for many feral cat colonies, on a daily basis.
