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Stray cats in Auburn become jailbirds
Unlike prisoners, cats love state correctional facility. Prison will
neuter them.

July 13, 2003
By John Stith
Staff writer

The big house has become a cat house.
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Auburn prison officials know how to deal with the stool pigeons and
dirty rats found among the inmate population, but lately it's the wild
cats that have been causing problems.

Auburn Correctional Facility Deputy Superintendent Robert Murphy said
officials think they have found the perfect way to control the prison's
feral felines population.

The prison will try a trap-neuter-release program that has been used
successfully at New York City jails on Riker's Island and at the state's
Sing-Sing Correctional Facility.

The prison will round up as many of the estimated three dozen wild cats
as it can, and hold them for a local vet to come in with a mobile
surgery unit and neuter the animals.

Afterward, the cats will be allowed to stay in the prison as guests of
the state's Department of Correctional Services, Murphy said.

He said no timetable has been set for the program. He is trying to set
up a date for a veterinarian to come to the prison and set up the mobile
surgery. Once he has that date, then volunteers, including some
prisoners, will begin trapping the cats.

The cats get in and out of the prison under the Wall Street Gate in the
north wall and where the old railroad line entered the prison through
the south wall.

Murphy said that, as far as he knows, the cats haven't shared their
intimate knowledge of how to get in and out of the prison with inmates.

Volunteers, staff and inmates will be involved in the program.

"What we're going to do is build permanent shelters for the cats," he
said. "They're going to be built right here in our building maintenance
vocational class, so the inmates, under the supervision of the
vocational instructor, will build these shelters."

Inmates will be assigned to feed, water and check on the cats daily,
Murphy said.

He said the Cayuga County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals and Feral Cat Friends of Central New York, based in Weedsport,
have also helped to organize the prison program.

Murphy confessed to owning 14 cats at his 110-acre farm in Oneida
County, including three that came from the prison.

"My wife and I are both animal lovers, and we've had quite a few dropped
off, and we gave them a home," Murphy said.

© 2003 The Post-Standard. Used with permission.