WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - An advocacy group for cats is suing the National Parks Service over the "complete eradication" of cats at a park.
Alley Cat Allies Incorporated (ACA), a global nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection and improvement of cats' lives, filed a lawsuit March 27 in D.C. federal court against the United States National Park Service (NPS).
The lawsuit is in response to the NPS's alleged plan to round up and potentially exterminate scores of cats from federal land in Puerto Rico.
The cats, which have lived in Puerto Rico for centuries, are considered an integral part of its historic culture and contemporary community, the suit claims. They reside throughout Old San Juan, including around the Paseo Del Morro National Recreational Trail at the San Juan National Historic Site.
The NPS had previously partnered with a nonprofit organization to manage the health, welfare, and population of these community cats through a Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) program.
However, ACA alleges that NPS has decided to end this program and pursue an eradication plan that includes trapping and removal efforts and removing all feeding stations in the park.
ACA argues that NPS's justifications for its plan are pretextual as it has provided no evidence that the community cats pose any danger to humans or harm native species or wildlife.
Charles Sams III, the director of the NPS, is among those named as a defendant. Addy Schmitt of Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler represents the plaintiff.