Residents at an Atlantic County Senior Citizen Apartment Complex say their community is being overrun with feral cats. It’s happening at Aloe Village in Galloway Township. The residents say the cats have been a constant problem and they’ve gotten little help.
“They go to the bathroom on the porch,” said one resident.
“It stinks back here,” said another resident, Evelyn Koegler. “You can’t open the door because of the smell.”
Koegler says she was even bitten by one of the cats.
“I was shooing them and one grabbed a hold of my fingers,” said Koegler.
Residents and staffers believe there are between 50 and 100 cats in the complex and surrounding woods, numbers that have significantly grown over the past few years as the animals multiply. Some residents who feel sorry for the cats continue to feed them, despite requests from management not to do so.
“The more we feed them the more they’re going to keep coming back,” said apartment complex manager Jacqueline Collazo. “We have tried a lot of times to call to maybe get help to get them taken out of here but it seems like there aren’t any funds for anyone to come and take them out.”
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NBC10 contacted the town’s animal control company. An employee told us they trapped and removed a few kittens at the complex just last month. He also said they’ve had problems with residents releasing cats caught in the traps and with traps getting stolen. Finally, he told us the company will set more traps, starting Wednesday.
“They need to go,” said Koegler. “It’s too much for old people. I can’t even get out here when they’re here.”
Once trapped, the cats are taken to the Atlantic County Animal Shelter which ultimately will have to decide if they’re fit for adoption.
