Project Hiraeon Seeks Long-term Solution for Region’s Feral Cats, Fundraises with Kitten Yoga
By NYCOLE SURJU
SUNY Institute for Local News
ONEONTA
Project Hiraeon, an emerging animal rescue organization serving Otsego County, is working to control the region’s feral feline population while preparing cats and kittens for adoption and developing plans for an animal sanctuary in Milford.
The organization focuses on trap-neuter-release, commonly known as TNR, as well as rehabilitation, adoption and public education. Project Hiraeon plans to build an indoor-outdoor facility that will provide temporary shelter for cats and kittens, including animals that need socialization before they can be placed in homes.
Since Project Hiraeon moved to Otsego County three years ago, the organization has homed “60 to 80 cats” and “over a dozen litters,” founder Kassandra Rivera said.
Project Hiraeon’s website describes the group as a community-driven effort seeking to create a safe space for animals while involving residents in sustainable animal welfare. Its current work is centered in Otsego County, where the organization attributes the growing feral cat population partly to abandoned barn cats and pets displaced by fires, storms, and other circumstances.
The organization is raising money for an “indoor/outdoor cat facility, that’s going to be approximately $100,000.00-$150,000.00,” Rivera said. Once completed, the facility “will provide a transitional space for cats and kittens,” with room for approximately 25 to 40 cats.
Rivera said the organization had raised about 6 percent of its goal, or “$6,000.00 exactly,” through activities that have included a kitten carnival and two kitten yoga sessions.
The September 19 kitten yoga fundraiser was held at the Southside Mall in Oneonta. During the session, participants practiced yoga while kittens moved around the room and interacted with attendees. Tickets were $30.00, with proceeds supporting the proposed facility.
The event offered a benefit beyond fundraising. By interacting with new people in an unfamiliar environment, the kittens had an opportunity to become more comfortable around humans, an important step for animals that may eventually be adopted.
An additional kitten yoga event is scheduled for Sunday, October 18, starting at 2 p.m. in the Southside Mall.
Kitten yoga attendee Diandra Nolasco praised the event and the organization’s work.
“Kitten yoga was amazing, it was fun, it was entertaining” Nolasco said.
She also described a previous encounter with the rescue organization: “I personally experienced them come save five kittens—cats from my neighborhood, an hour away. So I think what they’re doing is amazing, and I want to support them.”
For cats that can be socialized, Project Hiraeon works to prepare them for indoor life and eventual adoption. Cats that remain unsocialized may be included in its TNR work. Under that process, cats are humanely trapped, spayed or neutered and returned to the area where they were found.
Project Hiraeon says its TNR procedures can also include vaccinations, deworming and recovery care. The organization’s website reports that it has helped have more than 50 cats spayed or neutered through on-site clinics conducted with other organizations. It also reports finding homes for more than 30 kittens and cats during the project’s earlier work in New York City, including special-needs cats and bonded pairs.
The scale of the feral cat population makes such work a continuing challenge. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that between 30 million and 80 million unowned cats live in the United States. Its research review also says free-ranging cats affect native wildlife through predation, competition, and the spread of disease and have contributed to the extinction of at least 63 species in the wild worldwide.
Although animal welfare and wildlife organizations continue to debate the effectiveness of TNR as a long-term population-management strategy, preventing additional litters is a central part of Project Hiraeon’s local mission. The group’s combination of rescue, sterilization, socialization, and adoption work addresses a problem that affects neighborhoods, shelters, wildlife, and the cats themselves.
For Project Hiraeon’s organizers and supporters, the proposed Milford sanctuary represents an effort to establish more permanent animal-welfare resources in Otsego County. The response to events such as kitten yoga also reflects a broader community interest in finding humane, locally-based approaches to caring for homeless and feral animals.
This story was created by student reporters through the OnNY Community Media Lab, a program of SUNY Oneonta and the SUNY Institute for Local News.
