Caring Hearts for Homeless RIT Cats collection

Caring Hearts for Homeless Cats was started around 2001. It was a group of faculty, staff and community people concerned about all the starving cats left behind on campus. At the beginning there were over 150 homeless cats hiding and foraging at night on the campus. The number is down to about 4 now. [4/2025] All the cats were trapped and spayed / neutered and given rabies shots. Each one was evaluated; tame ones were adopted and feral ones were returned to campus. Each night the ferals were fed and monitored for injuries or sickness. The group built winter shelters for them. All campuses have an abandoned cat issues but RIT was the first to address it and correct it in NY State. As of 2025 the situation on campus is still in check; however, with the university growing, students now have more off-campus housing. Unfortunately, the areas around the campus have experienced a huge population growth of abandoned cats. One unspayed cat can produce hundreds of kittens. Seeing the need to prevent that from continuing, these two binders include just some of the activities of the original group. It shows a few fundraisers and newspaper articles and mentions the TV news that reported on us numerous times. These binders show activities from 2001 to 2021. The group branched off after the campus cats were under control and we then helped three huge farms with the cat populations there. One was the Bailey Road Farm, another was the Bean Farm on West Henrietta Road and the third was the Krezner Farm in Scottsville, Our group sponsored over 450 cats with the TNR (trap / neuter / release) program with the help of the Humane Society. The group is now run by a student association with the hope that the students will keep up the cause.