Cats – both those that have a home and an owner, and those who were thrown out or born in the street and now find their means of subsistence in waste containers, house basements or by way of support from people feeding them at a corner or in the backyard – make up a large proportion of our urban population.
We are often angry at them because they perform their wedding meow concerts loudly in the spring, tomcats mark all nooks and corners by spraying foul-smelling urine on them, engage in mutual fights, and cripple one another. Babies are then born to female cats, in the shape of hundreds of little kitten that nobody needs and that die under car wheels, in dogs’ teeth, and from the hand of cruel people. Sick, weakened, with lost eyes, they are dying in the basements, attics, and backyards of our houses…
They have not appeared out of nowhere. They were created by us. Once ago someone, somewhere threw out a female cat in the street that was no longer needed. On a sunny March day, this female cat met a vigorous and well-cared-for tomcat that had been let out of a flat or house for a walk. Two months passed, and the first six kittens were born to these cats, followed by another six born to every one of them later on…
Over a period of six years a single female cat and its offspring may together give birth to as many as 420 000 kittens. It is not possible and it will not be possible to find a new home for every one of them because street cats of the second and third generations can no longer be socialized to live together with humans, to name just one reason. Outdoor cats are no longer household animals; they are not yet wild animals either, since they cannot exist without humans. This is a new species found in the nature: feral city cats. This is a reality which exists, and we can no longer go about pretending it is not there.
The Programme
The initiative aims to implement Programme ‘Catch, Sterilize, Release’, an ownerless cat control programme used successfully elsewhere in the world. Spaying is a surgical operation in which the feline organs of reproduction are removed. It is simple, and the cat recovers from it quickly. The neutered cats are taken back to their places of habitation after a few days.
By installing cat houses the society hopes to reduce the problem caused by sealing the basements of blocks of flats, as a result of which cats sterilised using funds raised by the society, and residents, and provided by the Riga City Council, are left without shelter and perish. Over the last two years a problem faced by the society has become increasingly acute: basements are being sealed up, and sheds and other slum structures, which up to now provided shelter to homeless cats, are being pulled down as projects for thermal insulation of blocks of flats and improvement of the environment are growing in number.
On average the treatment of a single cat costs 15 – 40 EUR (neutering a female cat costs 25-40 EUR, spaying a male cat costs 15-30 EUR, animal euthanasia costs 15-30 EUR. One cat house where can live 8 – 10 cats costs 200 EUR.
The Project is placed online on: 01.01.2015
Project completed 31.12.2015
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