NANTICOKE -- Stray cats roaming up and down Autumn Hernandez's neighborhood in Nanticoke is a sight she says she sees too often here-- and elsewhere in the city.
"It's overpopulated, definitely,” Hernandez said.
In fact, local vets believe Luzerne County has 10,000 stray and feral felines. So officials in Nanticoke are trying to stop the over-populating from happening. They teamed up with the Animal Alliance and with Dawn Mendygral of Happy Hearts and Tails, a nonprofit that laid cat traps all around the city.
"We set traps in about six different locations and we continue to travel all day to monitor all the traps,” Mendygral said.
She captured more than two dozen felines in just two days. Then, the cats are treated in a "spay mobile." It's operated by the Eastern Pennsylvania Animal Alliance.
The EPAA also offers low-cost spaying and neutering to family pets, something that brought folks out to the event, too.
“It’s important to people that really can't take their animals to a vet. And this helps out a lot,” said Lori Tucker of Edwardsville.
As for those stray and feral animals, they're released back into the wild after their spaying, something people who live in Nanticoke say is a good thing.
"Let them finish their days roaming and feeding on mice, you know. That's what they need to do.” Hernandez said.