EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY - Animal advocate Michael Marra has been hauled into court on two separate occasions over his role as unofficial caretaker of the dozens of hapless feral cats at the Meadowlands Sports Complex, who he had been feeding out of his own pocket for about a decade. Now the former firefighter has been vindicated and formal arrangements in place for the felines to be cared for and charges against him set to be dismissed in six months.
Michael Marra appears in Municipal Court on Nov. 9, 2015, to answer to charges he violated a municipal ordinance banning feeding stray animals. Charges will be dismissed in six months if he doesn’t trespass on Sports Complex property.
At the proceeding, which about 30 of Marra’s supporters attended, his attorney, Anthony DiSalvo, said to the court that his client had agreed to a plea agreement, a deal where both charges against him will be dropped if he stays off the sports complex property for a period of six months. If Marra trespasses and violates that arrangement, which Judge George Savino approved, he will be prosecuted.
“Good luck,” Savino said.
The court outcome was the second piece of good news that Marra received in the past days. Late last week the operator of the Meadowlands Racetrack informed him that it was going to feed and care for the colonies of feral cats which live on the land it leases at the sports complex, taking over the duty that Marra had voluntarily performed for so many years.
Marra said that he was happy that the fate of the roughly 90 Meadowlands cats was no longer in jeopardy, now that the track’s operator, Meadowlands Racing and Entertainment, has stepped in to help the cause.
The feral felines are descendants of the barn cats that were brought to the track decades ago to control rodents and other vermin around the stables. But horses are no longer housed at the track and many of the barns have been torn down completely. The area has become a dumping ground for people who abandon cats.
Marra has been feeding the cats early in the morning, around 4:15 a.m. or so, on a daily basis for years, paying for their food out of his own money. Most recently, he has been spending about $400 a week on cat chow. It wasn’t until very recently, last month, that state troopers began enforcing East Rutherford’s ban on feeding feral animals.
After Marra had received his recent summonses, Darin Zoccali, the racetrack’s director of operations, held a meeting with state troopers and Kathleen O’Malley, director of Trap-Neuter-Release Education for the New York City Feral Cat initiative, a program associated with Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Alliance for New York City Animals.
Last Thursday, Marra received a voicemail message from Zoccali saying that there had been a resolution to the situation regarding the cats on the racetrack’s site, great news!
“We have worked out a process in which we’re going to be getting these cats fed and looked after internally,” Zoccali told Marra. “That is going to be our plan going forward. It’s already been under way. And I have other things in the works to make sure that the cats are well-looked after and taken care as well, long term. … You are no longer needed to come down here to do what you’ve been doing. We certainly appreciate your efforts in years past. I know it’s caused you some trouble. We’re certainly sorry about that.”
Last Friday, DiSalvo received a letter from Zoccali reiterating what he had told Marra in the voice mail message.
In that letter, Zoccali wrote that after meeting with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, the racetrack would move ahead with feeding the cats and also “bring in veterinary assistance to supply the cats with whatever is needed to ensure their health.” The letter said that Marra’s presence on the track’s property was no longer needed.
Just last December state police charged Marra with illegal trespassing on sports complex land. In January, Zoccali gave Marra written permission to feed the feral cats on the state lands that the track leases from the sports authority. The state police in October told Marra that East Rutherford’s ordinance against feeding feral animals superseded that letter he had.
Last December’s trespass charge against Marra was dismissed by the municipal court early last year and he agreed not to go on sports complex grounds for three months.
On Monday morning, Zoccali referred questions on the feral cats to the Sports Authority. Helen Strus, the authority’s director of marketing and communications and external affairs, said in an email that the track was taking the reigns on feeding the cats.
Bonnie Wilson, a Paramus resident and volunteer for Friends of the County Animal Shelter, FOCAS, was present at Monday’s court hearing. She said she was trying to rally East Rutherford residents to lobby to have the borough’s ban on feeding feral animals thrown out completely. Over the years she and Marra captured several dozen feral cats at the Meadowlands, had them spayed or neutered then re-released the cats at the racetrack.
Bergen County residents don’t realize that such prohibitions against feeding feral cats often end up with the felines being rounded up, trapped and euthanized, Wilson said.
“Feral cats need to be allowed to be alive,” she said. “There’s no reason why they should be killed.”
Manu Singh of Lyndhurst was also in court Monday to support Marra, saying that he has been talking to his local officials about changing the township’s ban on feeding feral cats.