It's a strip of land running about half a mile from tip to tip along the Niagara River in North Tonawanda.  It's home to several companies, a couple of marinas, a fire training facility, the Shores restaurant and dozens of cats.  Officially it's known as Tonawanda Island, but over the years people have begun calling it Cat Island.

There's only way to get to Tonawanda Island; across a bridge from River Road.  During the late fall and over the winter when the boats are stored away, the Shores restaurant is closed and there aren't too many people around, the cats have the run of the island.

During the off season when the weather is good I'll ride my bike over to the island and as I ride down the island's main road as far as you can see there are cats scurrying across the road from one field to the next.  They're everywhere, every place you look.

A group of volunteers has been working to humanely control the cat population on Tonawanda Island by capturing the cats, neutering them, then returning them to the island.  They've also been raising funds to provide food, water and shelter.

But now the owner of Shores restaurant is coming under fire for destroying the food and water stations and the shelters.  Michael Charnock says he was under orders from the fire marshal to clean up his property after a fire destroyed a nearby boat storage facility.

Charnock says he had no way to contact the people who run Operation Island Cat and he was under time constraints to get the job done.  He says he has allowed the cats to roam near his restaurant for 20 years and also gave the rescue group to place the feeding stations on the property, but not to the level it's reached.

The rescue group estimates the loss at more than $1700.  They've begun a fundraising campaign and in the meantime will look for another site on the island for the shelters and feeding stations.

More From 106.5 WYRK