IN THE wild, penguins are preyed upon by sharks, whales and leopard seals.
In Coney Island, they’re preyed upon by cats.
Several dozen nasty, feral cats – described by one New York Aquarium official as “vicious mini-bobcats” – have turned the aquarium into occupied territory and are holding the center’s blackfoot penguins, sea otters, fur seals and even the walruses as virtual hostages.
“They have full run of the place,” aquarium director Lou Garibaldi said, leading the Gnome on a tour of the areas – secured by little more than a chain-link fence – where the cats have set up camp. “And it’s getting worse.”
The ornery cats have not yet claimed a victim, aquarium officials say, but have frequently been spotted cornering penguins and provoking fights. Worse, the cats could be carrying diseases, such as distemper, leukemia and feline AIDS, that are particularly dangerous for sea otters – especially since the cats are prowling (and urinating and defecating and leaving parasites) in areas that are supposed to be germ-free.
The feral-cat invasion, first reported in a hard-hitting investigation by Gary Buiso in the Bay News, has been a problem for more than a year. The aquarium recently hired an exterminator – imagine that, a zoo hiring someone to kill animals – but has suspended its cat-eradication program amid protests from neighborhood cat lovers.
But that’s a bit of a cat-22. The protests are coming from the people who have been feeding Coney Island’s feral cats for years. One woman even scatters 30 cans of cat food a day, the aquarium says.
The woman, who did not return my call, does not take the cats home with her at night, instead leaving them to terrorize the penguins, despoil the walrus habitat and, quite possibly, poison an otter with toxoplasmosis.
“She’d been feeding these cats on our grounds for years, and I finally asked her to stop six months ago,” Garibaldi said. “She got very upset, so now she feeds them through our fence. She’s well-meaning, but all she’s doing is hiking the cats’ reproduction. Many of those kittens die. How is that humane?”
Another cat enthusiast in the neighborhood threw the “inhumane” charge right back at the aquarium.
“It’s outrageous that a conservation group has decided to hire an exterminator,” the woman, who is threatening to hold a community protest, said in the Bay News.
It may seem odd that a zoo would sanction the extermination of any animals, but the Gnome did a little checking and found that the practice is fairly common.
At the Central Park Zoo, rats are dispatched to the great garbage heap in the sky with nary a protest.
“We’ve been killing rats for years, and we’ve never been criticized,” said Central Park Zoo spokeswoman Diana Heide (who probably didn’t realize that saying such a thing will get her hate mail). “To be honest, the woman who is feeding those cats [in Coney Island] is the one who’s irresponsible.”
With exterminations on hiatus, the aquarium is trying to trap cats on its own, but is having little success.
“Wild cats are smart cats,” Garibaldi said. “They can figure out how to get out of our traps.”
Naturally, I pressed Garibaldi on the danger to the penguins (they’re cute, what can I say?), but he assured me that our flightless-but-formal friends would survive the onslaught.
“I’m sure these penguins can defend themselves, but they really shouldn’t be in this position at all,” Garibaldi said. “These cats walk around like they own the place.”