Animal activists claim a Coney Island principal is a real-life Cruella de Vil for failing to protect a pair of stray cats repeatedly buried by snow blowers this year.
Coney Island animal lover Suzanne Hernandez had been feeding a then four-member cat colony at IS 303 on Shore Parkway for 12 years, without issue, until Principal Shanesha White Bailey took the reins in 2022 and allegedly refused the kitties long-standing accommodations.
In 2023, Bailey ordered the removal of a small Styrofoam and plastic shelter for the cats located in the school’s large parking lot — leaving the poor kitties to seek shelter underneath shipping containers in the lot during inclement weather, activists claim.
During the snow storms on Jan. 25 and Feb. 22, the two remaining colony cats — 12-year-old Freddie and 8-year-old Blackie — were completely buried and trapped underneath the containers by snow piled by plows working to clear the school’s parking lot, Hernandez said.
Photos show the narrow space beneath the steel containers entirely sealed off, with no space for the cats to leave.
Hernandez and her 75-year-old husband Edwin came to the cats’ rescue and dug out exits — allowing the cats to escape an icy grave.
“I cry every day,” said Hernandez. “Why hurt something? It kills me.”
On Feb. 22 and Feb. 23, when Brooklyn received 18 inches of snow, Hernandez and her husband dug the cats out three times — after hand-pushed snow blowers repeatedly buried the cats, she said.
“They kept putting it back, putting it back, each time,” Hernandez said of the snow.
“I said, ‘Sir, did you see the cat?’ And he said ‘Get out of here cat lady! Get out of here with the cats lady!’ This is how they talk to me,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez and animal activists Legal Action Network for Animals want the principal to allow her to care for the cats on the school grounds. They are currently feeding the cats across the street.
“Ms. Hernandez had contacted the Legal Action Network for Animals begging for help. LANA sent a letter, basically asking school authorities to not obstruct Ms. Hernandez from feeding and caring for the cats, and not to harm the cats or create obstructions for them regarding shelter,” said LANA attorney and activist Nora Marino.
“It is a fairly simple ask. Caring for the cats harms no one, and it is the compassionate thing to do,” she concluded.
Neither the DOE nor White Bailey responded to requests for comment.
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