This Former Sanitation Worker is Photographing Brooklyn's Adorable Feral Cats

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Joe Tortora, 62, feeds a colony of feral cats under his care in Sunset Park, Brooklyn which totals nearly 40 cats. Joe is a former NY Sanitation employee who now spends his retirement savings on cat food and veterinarian bills to help the cats survive. As Joe says, "I can no longer afford to do this. The non-profits can get donations, I cannot. For people like me in the street everyday with the cats we are not getting any type of financial help, food alone is costing me $500 a month. The NY state legislation currently on the table could help with medical costs and that would be great...Bloomberg funded TNR programs to help stop the rat population and back then we had a grant to help pay for medical costs. Now all ~5000 colonies are on their own."

Photo: Elijah Hurwitz