Neighbors on one Valley Stream block have for years been part of an informal network of caregivers for a colony of outdoor cats. That community effort has recently drawn attention to a husky owned by a resident three blocks away that residents say has been killing cats and threatening public safety, including a killing they believe took place on Jan. 28.
The cat colony, on Home Street, has grown as cats that were reportedly abandoned or left to roam bred and established themselves in the neighborhood. Some were pets that escaped and didn’t return, and others were the offspring of unspayed or unneutered animals. Neighbors who began feeding and sheltering them discovered how quickly such a population could grow, and several took part in trap-neuter-return efforts. They called in a local professional rescuer, Danielle Wilson, who helped arrange spay and neuter care.
Residents recounted different starting points for their involvement. Larry Mantrone began feeding the strays after his sister noticed one with a leg injury. Mantrone bought traps and, beginning in 2018, started trapping and trying to socialize younger cats for adoption.
Gregory and Patricia Hrycak began leaving food and blankets on their back porch in 2019, after finding two small cats in their yard. Others who got involved, including Joan and Gus Thalasinos and Cheryl Savage, described setting up surveillance cameras, coordinating feeding schedules, sharing veterinary costs for cats that required medical attention and fostering adoptable animals indoors when possible.
“You become attached to them,” Gregory Hrycak said. “We’ll text each other, ‘Hey, have you seen kitten?’ ‘Haven’t seen kitten in a while, is she OK? Go talk to Gus.’ Even though they’re not living with us, per se, you care for them. I think I can speak for everyone here: I think we care. We wouldn’t be if we didn’t.”
The recent dispute that has galvanized the group began when residents began observing a husky running loose in the neighborhood in November 2024. The dog was seen jumping fences, entering yards and chasing small animals. Residents linked the husky to a series of colony cat deaths, and Savage and Mantrone witnessed an attack last April 3 that resulted in the death of a cat named Boots that was known to several of the caretakers.
“Poor Boots was paralyzed,” Mantrone said. “The dog jumped on Boots, fractured Boots, because all Boots could do was basically stay in one place. He still had control of his upper body. He was trying to turn around, hiss, and even play. It was just terrible. And the dog is basically just barking at him and playing with him like he’s a big chew toy.
“I think the dog does the same thing each time,” Mantrone added. “He basically jumps on the animal to immobilize it, and then starts batting it around, playing with it, and scratching and stuff, pulling it and biting.”
In the most recent incident, three weeks ago, in which a dead cat was discovered, Lynbrook veterinarian Gary Baum performed a necropsy and concluded that the cause was blunt force trauma. Neighbors believe the husky was the culprit.
They called Nassau County police after the April attack, and, according to the police report from the incident, officers recovered the dog and returned it to an address on Lamberson Street obtained through a Freedom of Information Law inquiry with the village — a house owned by Rebeca Mendoza. Caretakers submitted letters and complaints to municipal authorities, including the village, as well as Town of Hempstead and county agencies, including the county chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. They also filed a dangerous-dog complaint under Section 123 of New York’s Agriculture and Markets Law in Nassau County district court.
The court did not interpret or apply dangerous-dog or related companion-animal provisions of the law, as the neighbors expected, concluding that the law did not cover cats described as strays or community cats, despite the residents’ consistent caretaking over the years and their emotional connection to the animals. The neighbors reported delays or a lack of substantive follow-up from the town, the village and other agencies after they submitted the complaints and documentation.
Patrick Donaghy, Mendoza’s boyfriend, who spoke on her behalf, described the husky as friendly and attributed the behavior to the scent left by the many cats in the area.
“Any time of the day, you could see half a dozen to a dozen cats outside [Mantrone’s] house,” Donaghy said. “And it’s almost baiting them, because if the wind goes this way and it’s that concentration of smell, it’s going to get any animal excited.”
For their part, the neighbors are seeking an end to the cat killings and a reliable method of containing the husky. They cited obstacles to that containment in the current village and town fence regulations, specifically their height limits, noting that typical suburban yards do not easily accommodate the kind of fencing that they believe would be required to contain a large, powerful dog with a unique ability to jump.
As a result, residents said, the dog should be rehomed to a more suitable environment, or be prevented from escaping into the street.
Donaghy described a new containment system installed for the husky, consisting of a dog run about 60 feet long, installed between two trees. The primary line is made of stainless steel aircraft cable, positioned about eight feet above the ground and secured from tree to tree. Attached to this overhead line is a secondary tether, also a cable, about 40 feet long.
When the dog is properly secured to this system, Donaghy said, he cannot leave the property. In January, he was briefly let outside without being tethered. According to Donaghy, one of Mendoza’s sons stepped away momentarily, and the dog ran off.
“We’ve had new cats popping up over the last few months,” Gus Thalasinos said. “I’ve purposefully not been interacting with them, not trying to form any relationship, because it could be gone. It’s been a lot of induced paranoia and worry for these poor, innocent animals, that if I could bring them in, I would.”
The neighborhood group continues to maintain feeding, outdoor shelters andtrap-neuter-return efforts and to monitor neighborhood surveillance footage.
