Activists face lonely fight for North Hempstead cat shelter, as other towns take in hundreds of felines

Liz Diamond fixed her gaze on a thicket of bushes and trees behind a shopping center in Roslyn on a frigid afternoon.

She was waiting for her cats. And she had food.

Soon, Precious and Rascal, a pair of stray cats she named, emerged and pattered over toward Diamond. She scooped a mixture of wet cat food onto a plastic spoon and held it out for the felines. She smiled as they indulged, one after the other.

Diamond, who says she only feeds cats that are spayed or neutered, is part of a group of activists who provide food and medical care for cats living on the street, some of whom are feral — not socialized to interact with humans. Others have been dropped off by owners who can no longer care for them. The activists said they believe some of that responsibility should fall on the Town of North Hempstead, but the town’s animal shelter does not take cats.

The lack of a cat shelter in North Hempstead has for decades frustrated animal activists, who say the town should have a dedicated facility for the treatment of cats who need to be surrendered. Town officials in 2005 announced plans to build a cat wing at its animal shelter in Port Washington, but the plans never materialized.

Nassau County's two other towns — Hempstead and Oyster Bay — operate shelters that accept cats. In Suffolk, every town except for East Hampton and Shelter Island has a town-run animal shelter or a contract with a nonprofit shelter that accepts cats. 

Municipal-run shelters care for hundreds of cats each year, according to town data provided to Newsday. In 2024 alone, 10 towns' shelters accepted more than 4,800 cats, Newsday found. Municipal shelters are pivotal to their communities, according to researchers and cat behavior specialists. They offer a place for kittens born to feral cats to become socialized and potentially find a home, and they can be a refuge for people to surrender their cats, who aren't trained to fend for themselves outdoors. 

"The benefit would be for community members who have an animal that they have to find a home for, due to a sensitive reason," said Victoria Bove, a professor of veterinary clinical sciences at Long Island University's Lewyt College of Veterinary Medicine. "A family member has passed away, [or] they're moving and can't keep the cat. The family member is sick and can't provide the means to provide [for] a cat."

Bove said shelters can help curb the feral population.

"While the feral cat itself might not be amenable to living an indoor life, if it's having multiple litters a year, that's additional cats that are not available for adoption, and then continuing the cycle," Bove said in an interview of the kittens of feral cats entering shelters.

Stephen Quandt, a certified feline training and behavioral specialist based in New York City, said there are a number of reasons people might want to surrender their cats to a shelter: The owner could be struggling with a debilitating illness, or the loss of income, or someone in the family is allergic. Sometimes, Quandt said, the cats might just engage in behaviors the owners find too challenging.

North Hempstead Town spokesman Umberto Mignardi said in a statement the town believes its trap, neuter and release program represents a "more humane response" to controlling the feline population.

"This allows a licensed veterinarian to assess each cat’s health and then neuter and vaccinate them, so they can be safely returned to their original habitat. This approach is also widely recognized as the most effective way to control feral populations," Mignardi said.

'A lot of accidental breeding'

Leigh Wixson, director of Smithtown's animal shelter, said there was an uptick in people dropping off dogs and cats after the pandemic, and again in recent months as residents have left town due to the rising cost of living on Long Island.

Wixson said the shelter has a waitlist for incoming cats. 

"They really duplicate very quickly and at a very young age," Wixson said. "People who are careless about even their cats getting spayed and neutered … there's a lot of accidental breeding."

Municipal shelters on Long Island take in hundreds of cats each year.

Hempstead's animal shelter took in 2,150 cats in 2024, while Oyster Bay's total was 426 last year, town officials told Newsday. 

In Babylon, the shelter accepted 604 cats in 2024, and Islip's took in 224 last year, officials said.

Long Island municipal shelter officials contacted by Newsday said they are "no-kill" facilities. Some officials said the animals are only euthanized if they become seriously ill.

North Hempstead offers several options for spay and neuter services for feral cats.

Town residents can obtain a trap from Helping PAW, an animal welfare nonprofit that has a clinic at the town's animal shelter, and trap the cat themselves. The staff will then provide them with a voucher to cover the cost of the spay or neuter procedure. The trapper will then release the cat back to where they found it. 

The town allocated $40,000 for the voucher program, which was implemented in June.

North Hempstead also has a contract with All About Spay Neuter, a Massapequa shelter that offers full service trap, neuter and release services. Residents can call, and the animal rescue will take care of the process.   

And the town has long maintained a program where, once a month, people can bring cats to the Helping PAW clinic to get the animals spayed and neutered for free — but the contract for that service expires in March, a town official said. The town is looking for a new provider.

“As of yet we haven’t received any submissions but we’re hoping to spread the word and get responses soon. It’s a critical part of our effort to humanely control the feral cat population," Mignardi said in the statement. 

Gaps in coverage

The fight for a cat shelter in North Hempstead spans decades. In 2005, the town broke ground on a cat shelter wing within its existing animal shelter in Port Washington, Newsday reported. Three years later, however, the company that North Hempstead had hired sued the town, having claimed unpaid work. The town board authorized a settlement of the case for about $130,000, Newsday reported in 2009.

Then, in 2020, a feasibility study by Melville-based Nelson & Pope concluded the town’s animal shelter did not have enough space for a cat shelter.

Linda Stuurman, president of Last Hope, a Wantagh nonprofit animal rescue and adoption center, has been pushing the town to add a cat shelter for nearly two decades.

Stuurman said Last Hope fills in some of the gaps left by the town not having a shelter. When someone in North Hempstead needs to place a cat — if the owner dies, or the owner wants to surrender the animal — Last Hope typically won't take it in but will advise on how to proceed.

"Without that town shelter, we're called upon to help with those kinds of situations, which really aren't our main focus," Stuurman said.

Diamond comes twice a day to the spot behind the shopping center to feed the cats, she said. On a ledge, she places food in a plastic container and warm water in another.

“They know what time it is,” she said over the howling wind. “It’s so cold, you know, there’s a window of opportunity for them to eat before the food freezes.”

Diamond and a handful of other activists are often the first to arrive at Town Hall in Manhasset for the monthly board meeting.

One by one, they step to the podium during public comment and address the town board. They tell stories of finding injured and sick cats on the streets, and of the work they do.

The elected officials rarely respond.

“Sometimes it’s very hard to keep going,” Diamond said. 

With Denise M. Bonilla, Carl MacGowan, Tara Smith

By Joshua Needelman

joshua.needelman@newsday.com

Joshua Needelman covers the Town of North Hempstead for Newsday. A Long Island native and University of Maryland graduate, his work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post.