Neighbors frustrated by city's handling of cat rescue in Mill Basin

ACC first showed up last Friday, but the two rescuers couldn’t catch all 40 cats. Conti said it’s been a cat-and-mouse chase with the agency ever since.

Tim Harfmann

Oct 16, 2025, 11:18 PM

Updated 20 hr ago

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There’s mounting frustration over dozens of felines that are still inside of a house on East 63rd Street in Mill Basin. “I want them out of the house,” said Jaimie Conti, a neighbor. “It’s just too much.”
Conti lives nearby and told News 12 that she’s been caring for the animals since July because the homeowner, who is an older adult, was hospitalized.
ACC first showed up last Friday, but the two rescuers couldn’t catch all 40 cats. Conti said it’s been a cat-and-mouse chase with the agency ever since.
“The first day [ACC] came, they came at 10 o’clock [in the morning] on the dot,” said Conti. “But then a few times after that, they said they were going to come and I didn’t hear anything. I called and left a message. [I] Didn’t get a call back until two hours later.”
ACC finally sent someone on Thursday. It was just one man with a net and several crates.
News 12 was told that he couldn’t rescue the remaining 20 cats and had to return.
Conti is concerned because some of the cats are now hiding in the house and are in bad condition.
“Their hair is matted, a couple of them,” said Conti. “Their ears are messed up on a few of them. [The ACC rescuer] caught one that is missing half a tail.”
Multiple neighbors told News 12 that they contacted elected officials, as well as the mayor’s Office of Animal Welfare. The agency simply that News 12 that “ACC is in the process of removing the cats.”
The NYPD said there is no criminality at this time.