THE CAT RESCUERS: A Poignant Exploration Of An Important Issue

When I’m not watching and reviewing films on behalf of Film Inquiry, I volunteer with a cat rescue and adoption group in New York. We pull cats from shelters, hoarding situations, the streets and elsewhere and host them in foster homes when we’re not showing them for adoption on the weekends. Helping these cats, some of whom have medical problems and very tough histories to overcome, fills me with happiness. New York is a city of millions of people but it is also home to thousands of stray cats, and they deserve a chance at a good life just as much as we do.

The Cat Rescuers is a new documentary that examines the street cat crisis in New York, with a specific focus on the borough of Brooklyn and four individuals who devote almost all of their spare time and money to trap-neuter-return (TNR) and other activities involving cats. TNR is a process in which feral street cats are trapped, taken to be spayed and neutered so that they cannot continually reproduce, and then released back onto the streets they call home. Some cats are just not meant to live in human homes, and TNR at least ensures that they won’t be able to create any more little baby cats to balloon the already enormous street cat population in New York. However, TNR and other cat rescue activities – whether it be feeding strays or taking them in and putting them up for adoption – are not easy, and the emotional and financial toll this takes on the rescuers involved is front and center in The Cat Rescuers.

Stray Cat Strut

The film takes us inside Animal Care Center, a perpetually crowded city shelter where animals who cannot find homes are sadly often euthanized, making it impossible not to see the crucial importance of the work the tireless cat rescuers of the city are doing in decreasing the population of strays on the streets. Who are these rescuers? Latonya “Sassee” Walker, a legal investigator with a boisterous sense of humor and a no-nonsense attitude about rescue, lives in Canarsie with her teenage daughter (a cat rescuer in training) and will sit in her car for hours on end if that’s what it takes to capture a cat in need. Stuart Siet maintains radio communications for the FDNY while also waking up at 3:00 AM every day to feed the stray cats in Kensington. Tara Green overcame a troubled past and serious drug addiction thanks to the love of a cat, and now pays it forward by traveling around Brooklyn from her base in Coney Island, rescuing cats and putting them up for adoption. Claire Corey is an impossibly kind-hearted artist in Bed-Stuy who has filled her house with rescue cats and is starting to suffer from the emotional weight of it all.

As I already noted, it’s not easy to do what these four do, and The Cat Rescuers doesn’t shy away from showing the harder, darker sides of this tireless work. Cats tend to be most active at dawn and dusk, meaning that if you’re going to feed, trap and rescue them, you are going to find yourself on the streets of New York at times when it would be far more comfortable to be in bed. And yet, watching the cats of Kensington joyfully and noisily chase Stuart down the street when he appears in the early hours of the morning to do his feeding rounds shows how emotionally rewarding this work can be, even if it is also exhausting.

There’s also a large financial burden that comes with being a cat rescuer in New York. In one heart-wrenching scene, Claire breaks down crying on the phone when she learns how many thousands of dollars it will cost to save the lives of some sick cats she has rescued. The ever-pragmatic Sassee notes that as rescuers, they often get a discounted rate from animal hospitals on spaying and neutering animals – but rescuers still must almost always pay for the procedures out of their own pockets, and that adds up quickly when you’re as active a rescuer as Sassee. Yet, the personal cost never stops her from going out to help a cat in need, including when her daughter frantically calls her after she spots a friendly cat with a horrifically injured tail prowling their streets.

Against the Odds

As The Cat Rescuers shows us, the city of New York does little in an official capacity to care for the copious number of feral and abandoned cats on its streets, meaning that the volunteer work of these rescuers and other such selfless individuals is all that these animals have to protect them. The industrial areas where many cat colonies currently exist are in danger of being destroyed as this real estate is bought up and turned into housing developments, meaning that in many cases, the deadline for these cats to be rescued is looming. The film follows a rescue group called Brooklyn Animal Action as they spread the word about their activities on the street and even meet with government officials to try and raise awareness of the need to prevent the city’s cat population from further exploding. Yet, unfortunately, little in the way of concrete action results from their liaisons with the city.

Despite this disappointment and other emotionally draining moments, The Cat Rescuers is an ultimately hopeful film. Because of the actions of Sassee, Stuart, Claire, Tara and others, the number of cats that are euthanized at Animal Care Center has drastically decreased in recent years. For every scene of a rescuer bemoaning their struggles, we’re also gifted with joyous scenes of cats who have escaped unpleasant fates to be paired with loving adopters. Cat rescue might be difficult work, but The Cat Rescuers makes it very clear that it isn’t fruitless – and for that reason, it is all the more important to raise awareness of it.

The Cat Rescuers: Conclusion

Obviously, I have a personal attachment to the topic of The Cat Rescuers that made watching this documentary a particularly emotional and impactful experience for me. However, I think that any animal lover will be inspired by this poignant film and the human faces that it puts on this incredibly important issue.

What do you think? Are you familiar with TNR and animal rescue? Would you watch a movie about it? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Watch The Cat Rescuers