Scranton extends lease of former fire station to nonprofit spay/neuter organization
Last year, the city temporarily leased the building for seven months to St. Cats and Dogs Inc. — which pronounces the 'St.' as 'street.'
The lease term now would extend for another 12 months 'to help relieve the current crisis of insufficient animal shelter space in our community,' according to legislation adopted by Scranton City Council.
The Engine 15 building closed as a fire station in 2011. It later was used over several years by the Police Department and more recently by city animal control officers.
The Scranton Fire Department's former Engine 15 station building at 1409 Ash St. on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
A year ago, city leaders were considering eventually selling the former firehouse. By June, they instead decided to have the city keep ownership of the Ash Street building and leased it for $1 to St. Cats and Dogs for seven months, from June 18, 2024, to Jan. 17, 2025, for that organization to use for its operations.
Now, the city intends to extend the lease, retroactively from Jan. 18, 2025, to Jan. 17, 2026, according an ordinance authorizing the lease.
Scranton City Council introduced the ordinance Jan. 21, advanced it Jan. 28 and adopted it Tuesday, according to meeting agendas and minutes and Electric City Television videos of meetings posted on YouTube.
Established in 2012, St. Cats and Dogs opened its cat-and-dog spay/neuter clinic at the former zoo building at Nay Aug Park in 2015. Efforts to reach St. Cats and Dogs founder Joanne Davis were unsuccessful.
While the legislation refers to the former firehouse on Ash Street as an animal shelter under St. Cats and Dogs use, Councilman Mark McAndrew said that is not the case and cats and dogs are not kept there.
'They can't kennel them there,' McAndrew said, adding the city needs to find a solution to better handle strays, especially in frigid weather, according to minutes of the Jan. 21 meeting.
He also addressed the issue at the Jan. 7 council meeting, according to meeting minutes, saying, 'I received some complaints about (stray) dogs. You know, there's been a feral cat problem. We're all aware of that and the city struggles with it.'
The website of St. Cats and Dogs also stresses, 'We are NOT a shelter.'
St. Cats an Dogs spay/neuter clinic at Nay Aug Park in Scranton on Dec. 21, 2022. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
St. Cats and Dogs traps feral cats, sterilizes them and releases them back into the neighborhoods they came from. The practice also is known as trap, neuter, return, or TNR. The organization says TNR is a nonlethal solution to feral cat overpopulation, with cats humanely trapped, sterilized, vaccinated and returned to where they were trapped. TNR also ear-tips the feral cats for immediate identification if they are trapped again, so they can be released immediately. TNR decreases colony sizes as cats are sterilized, which means fewer unwanted kittens and fewer cats euthanized in shelters. Screeching, fighting and spraying also are eliminated and the treated cats are vaccinated against rabies, according to St. Cats and Dogs.
The organization works with the nonprofit Eastern Pennsylvania Animal Alliance of Brodheadsville, which operates a mobile clinic for spaying and neutering.
Municipalities throughout Lackawanna County also have passed ordinances in recent years requiring residents to spay and neuter feral cats if they intend to feed them. Residents and animal-welfare groups often take such cats to St. Cats and Dogs at Nay Aug Park for TNR purposes.
St. Cats and Dogs also adopts out felines and has 60-100 cats and kittens available at any given time.
Joanne Davis of St. Cats and Dogs holds kittens at the group's home in the former zoo at Nay Aug Park in Scranton on June 11, 2019. (TIMES-TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO)
'Through TNR, adoption of friendlies and other community projects, we strive to reduce the population and improve the lives of our feline friends,' the St. Cats and Dogs website says.
For information about the organization, adoptions or volunteering, see the St. Cats and Dogs website at stcatsdogs.org or on Facebook.
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