Thursday, January 14, 2016 – New York, NY – A unique exhibit that combines the love of architecture with the love of animals was unveiled this afternoon at a special press preview of Architects for Animals: Giving Shelter. On display at the Steelecase Showroom were winter shelters designed, built and donated to the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals by respected architecture and design firms as well as individual architects and designers. Specifically created for feral and stray “community cat” colonies in New York City, the exhibit will be unveiled to the public at a fundraising event this evening benefiting the NYC Feral Cat Initiative of the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals.
Among the architectural firms and individuals participating in this year’s exhibition are:
- Biber Architects,
- Prudon & Partners with Docomomo US,
- Narofsky Architecture,
- Spacesmith,
- deSoto studio Architects,
- the team santilli | farrell, and
- HLW International.
Following the exhibition, the shelters will be evaluated by the Alliance and installed in community cat colonies across New York City. Designed to keep outdoor cats more comfortable during the cold winter months, the shelters are also meant to serve as inspiration for others to build their own shelters if they see an animal in need.
Jane Hoffman, President of the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals, said, “I’d like to thank the architectural and design community in New York City for, once again, investing in the city’s feline community in an important way. While we urge the public to help in the Alliance’s efforts to humanely curb the feral cat population, the efforts of our designers will help keep the existing cats warm during these harsh winter months.”
Feral cats are not socialized to humans. Cats that are born outdoors and have little or no interaction with humans become feral. The NYC Feral Cat Initiative is committed to solving NYC’s feral cat overpopulation crisis through the humane, non-lethal method of Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR). This is how TNR works:
- First, stray and feral cats, also called “community cats,” are humanely trapped by volunteer certified TNR caretakers who bring the cats to a free or low-cost spay/neuter clinic or veterinarian where they are spayed or neutered, vaccinated, and eartipped.
- The volunteers then return the cats to the original colony. The volunteers also provide ongoing care of the cats, including daily food, water, and clean-up of the area, shelter, and monitoring of the cats’ health.
This ongoing surveillance ensures that any new cats that find their way into the colony will be removed if they are tame, or TNR’d if they are feral.
About the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals®
The Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals® is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity that works with more than 150 partner rescue groups and shelters to offer important programs and services that save the lives of NYC’s homeless animals. We are supported entirely by donations from foundations, corporations, and individuals and receive no government funding. Since our founding in 2003, we have remained committed to transforming New York City into a community where no dogs or cats of reasonable health and temperament will be killed merely because they do not have homes. www.AnimalAllianceNYC.org
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