Animal rights advocates are likening a Coney Island principal to Cruella de Vil, accusing her of neglecting two stray cats that have been repeatedly buried by snow blowers this year.
For 12 years, Suzanne Hernandez, a devoted animal enthusiast from Coney Island, had been caring for a small group of stray cats at IS 303 on Shore Parkway. She encountered no issues until 2022 when Principal Shanesha White Bailey took over and allegedly dismissed the cats’ established shelter arrangements.
In 2023, Bailey reportedly ordered the removal of a modest Styrofoam and plastic shelter in the school’s parking lot, leaving the cats to find cover under shipping containers during bad weather, according to animal rights supporters.
During snowstorms on January 25 and February 22, the two remaining cats of the colony — Freddie, aged 12, and Blackie, aged 8 — were completely buried under snow piled by plows clearing the school’s parking lot, according to Hernandez.
Photographs reveal that the space beneath the steel containers became entirely blocked, leaving no way for the cats to escape.
Hernandez, with the help of her 75-year-old husband Edwin, rescued the cats by digging out pathways, allowing them to escape from their icy entrapment.
“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.
