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....October 6, 2:01 AM |
| Animal Hoarding - Is The ‘Cat Lady’ A Myth Or Problem?
By ELLEN THOMPSON “How could we be expected to live like this?!” Tamika Williams’ voice roared through the Pomonok Houses complex. She violently swatted gnat after gnat away from her mouth, while gripping her nose with her other hand. With each swift swat, the nauseating scent of ammonia-drenched urine swirled about her. Williams gasped for air, her face cringing with disgust. Glancing around the complex there was no telling where the scent was emanating from; that was until the doors of 70-20 Parson Blvd., just 20 feet behind Williams, swung open. The air, in a matter of seconds, carried a thicker scent of urine. “As long as we are alive, do we not deserve the right to breathe fresh air?!” Williams continued, her tone intensifying with each question. “Are we asking too much to have our mail be delivered to functioning mailboxes in our lobby?” This wasn’t the first time Williams has asked these questions. In May 2004 Williams, along with other Pomonok tenants, began to sense that there was something dreadfully wrong in the building. And they sensed it was festering on the first floor, a mere 15 feet from their mailboxes. The scent of ammonia wasn’t as strong then as it is today, but they knew it was building behind the door marked No. 1A. By January 2005, the tenants had signed dozens of petitions and sat through handfuls of meeting with city agencies ranging from the New York City Housing Authority to the Department of Mental Health. They even attended trial after trial. And it was all because of a few cats skulking behind the door marked No. 1A. A Few Cats? “A few cats would be underestimating the problem,” Assemblywoman Nettie Mayersohn (D-Flushing) said of the conditions behind the door marked No. 1A. When the US Postal Service placed a letter on the mailboxes July 7 that read, “Due to the unsafe condition of the lobby at 70-20 Parsons Blvd. mail delivery will be suspended until further notice,” Mayersohn, along with fellow elected officials State Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing), Councilman James Gennaro (D-Fresh Meadows) and U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Kew Gardens) realized the problem was bigger than they had thought. After visiting the building and inhaling the nauseating scent for themselves, the elected officials contacted the City Health Department, which sent inspectors to the building Aug. 10. When the inspectors entered the building, they were not only met by the same noxious odors, but by an uncooperative Rose and Thomasina Maggio, a mother and daughter who refused to let the inspectors into their home. The Housing Authority had been able to break through to the Maggios though, with the family allowing cleaners into the apartment, but denying them access to one of the rooms where officials believe up to 29 cats are being housed. On Sept. 12, a court order was placed stating that a temporary guardian be appointed to monitor and remove any cats found in the Maggios’ apartment. In addition to remedying the inconvenience many tenants have faced, the Post Office and the Housing Authority have come to an agreement to install a temporary cluster box outside the building for mail delivery until the odor issues are completely resolved. “When will these problems really be resolved, though?” Williams, who has lived in the building for six years, questioned on Monday. “We went to court again. We were told guardians would be placed in the building to monitor and remove the cats, along with Animal Care and Control. And have we seen them? No. This is a serious quality of life issue for us tenants.” According to Mayersohn’s office, the court-ordered guardian, New York Foundation for Senior Citizens, which protects the health and welfare of mentally impaired individuals, would begin the cat removal this Friday. NYFSC was unable to confirm the date or discuss the specific case at hand, a spokesman said. Requesting that she wouldn’t be the focus of the story, Rose Maggio said she did not “wish to talk to anybody about the issue going on here. “We live on top of a boiler for 50 years and more or less we are being harassed by this. And they are blaming our pet of the odor, and we have no odor here at all. This has been going on for two years, okay?” she said, become more and more defensive as she continued. “And we have two kitty cats, and we are being harassed that we have a 100 cats, we have 50, we have 30 we have 20. We are in court right now, and this has to stop!” |
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