Feline Colonies Control

Feline colonies control

Introduction

At present, feline colonies have become an alarming public health problem, especially in urban centers. However, the street overpopulation of cats shows a very important problem of our society.

Next, we will try to address the main social, legal and ethical considerations, related to the multiplication of street cats around the large urban centers. Logically, it will be impossible to deepen these issues;But we will try to highlight the role that all of us, as a society, must assume in the prevention of feline colonies.

Developing

The AFFINITY Foundation annually conducts a study on the adoption and abandonment of pets. In 2018, the data published through this infograph.

Only in the aforementioned year, about 138 thousand pets have been collected from Spanish streets. To this figure, the information provided by the National Institute of Statistics is added;These data reveal that approximately 1.7 % of dogs and more than 1 % of the cats of the Iberian Peninsula were victims of abandonment or loss during 2017.

Fortunately, several of these animals manage to be rescued from abandonment or loss and are collected in protectors and shelters. However, a significant percentage ends up wandering the streets and, in the case of cats, forming street colonies streets.

Feline colonies: Why are growth figures so worrying?

Beyond being able to take refuge in abandoned properties, timely revirmed garbage or generating discomfort with their noises for neighbors, feline colonies represent a significant risk to public health.

Mainly if we consider the dangers of transmission of zoonotic diseases to humans and other animals.

Zoonoses are all those pathologies and conditions that animals can spread to humans, directly or indirectly. Not having minimally controlled nutrition or preventive medicine, street feline groups become a focus of zoonosis, mainly in urban centers.

The direct or indirect risk that the feline colonies represent for human health causes that the authorities must take certain measures to prevent and control it to street overpopulation. In fact, much of the autonomous communities have already approved some regulations on this matter, such as the express prohibition of feeding street animals.

But these regulations are still revealed very little effective, both to reduce the proliferation of street cats, and to diagnose the brutal actions that are carried out by many neighbors, in the intention of ‘getting rid’ of the feline colonies. It is a reality that the poisoning of street cats remains frequent in Spain;although it is expressly prohibited and is susceptible to penalty of up to two years in prison, according to article 336 of the Criminal Code.

Is it possible to control feline colonies ethically and effectively?

To talk about an ethical control of the feline colonies, the first thing is to disconsider any strategy that proposes massive sacrifices or exterminations of street cats.

It is enough to remember that the Criminal Code provides for prison penal. But in addition to being a clear example of animal abuse, mass euthanasia of street cats escapes any notion of empathy or social justice.   

Therefore, in the introduction we stressed that street colonies are a symptom of our deficiencies as a society and the little efficacy of public policies regarding street overpopulation. But well, the central question still remains without answering.

conclusion

After all, is it possible to control the feline colonies in an ethical and dignified way? Of course yes! To do this, we could consider the strategy of capturing, sterilization and ease for immediate prevention of the proliferation of these groups.

Greater economic and social support could also be offered to protectors and shelters. These centers are surely willing to work in the resocialization of these felines to subsequently try to find them a decent home.

Any control strategy of feline colonies must be accompanied by popular awareness initiatives on responsible tenure and promotion to animal adoption. Well, only in this way we will be able to combat the main cause of street overpopulation: animal abandonment.