Cops: Man trapped cats on porch

A Fort Salonga man who set a pair of cat traps outside his home after two unwanted felines catnapped on his porch faces criminal animal-abandonment charges, authorities said.

The Suffolk County Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Chief Roy Gross said Edward W. Foy, 57, of Heights Road, was charged with two counts of animal abandonment after trapping his neighbor's cats and releasing them at Sunken Meadow State Park.

Foy was upset that the two felines had been sleeping on cushions on his porch and leaving cat hair on them, Gross said.

Foy will be arraigned May 5 at District Court in Central Islip and, if convicted, could face up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. Animal abandonment is a misdemeanor under state law.

"Hopefully this will send a message out to other people thinking of doing this, thinking that it is not a criminal act," Gross said. "It is a criminal act."