An American animal welfare organisation has made a donation to the Cayman Islands Humane Society to pay for the spaying and neutering of 100 cats.
The cash will help to bolster the society’s long-running sterilisation programme, set up to stop the birth of unwanted kittens across the territory.
Alley Cat Allies said by offering its funding boost, it is “making a stand to prevent cats from being killed on the Cayman Islands”.
The group announced the donation just weeks after Cabinet approved the creation of Department of Agriculture cat pounds in Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac.
Cats captured by members of the public will be kept in one of the pounds for six days, and if they are not claimed, they will be euthanised.
The US group said the Humane Society’s programme is “an approach that starkly contrasts against the deadly government plan already underway”.
The programme begins
Three members of Alley Cat Allies visited Grand Cayman on Monday, 16 Oct., on the organisation’s Global Cat Day to learn more about the current sterilisation programme.
During the day, three cats at the Cayman Islands Human Society animal shelter on North Sound Road in George Town were given operations to prevent them from reproducing.
Samantha Cooper, operations manager at the Cayman Islands Humane Society, told the Compass the extra funding provides “an exciting opportunity for us to extend our work”.
The focus of the programme is on shelter cats and cats cared for by members of the community who may not be able to afford to pay for operations themselves, she said.
On speaking about the government’s new pound, Cooper stressed that the Humane Society never wants to see healthy cats put to sleep.
However, she hopes it will encourage the humane treatment of stray cats, and she plans to work with the Department of Agriculture to try and re-home captured cats.
“We obviously get very full, but we will rescue as many as we can and I hope some members of the community will also do the same,” Cooper said.
‘A failed policy’
In its latest meeting, Cabinet approved new procedures for the control of stray and feral cats by the public, drawn up by the Department of Environment and other agencies.
The rules state that a member of the public can trap a cat in a cage and take them to a Department of Agriculture pound where they may be euthanised if not claimed.
In a press release, Alley Cat Allies said the government’s plan for controlling the stray cat population is misguided.
“Killing cats is a failed policy that has never proven to be successful,” it said. “While removal may briefly reduce the number of cats, it never lasts.”
The group said other cats will be attracted to resources such as food and shelter and move in to fill the space, quickly bringing population levels back up.
“This phenomenon is known as the ‘vacuum effect’ and it is well established in research,” the organisation said.
Local species protection
Stray cats have long been blamed for hunting native animal species in the Cayman Islands, such as rock iguanas on Little Cayman and juvenile booby birds on Cayman Brac.
Government initiated culls have taken place in Little Cayman and on an area of The Bluff near a brown booby nesting habitat in Cayman Brac.
During a meeting of the National Conservation Council in August, Fred Burton of the Department of Environment said spaying and neutering does not help protect wildlife, as sterilised cats will continue to hunt.
“It has been fairly clearly established in scientific circles and in our review within DoE that trap, neuter, release does not work in the situations that we’re working in here in Cayman.”
But Alley Cat Allies does not agree and said killing is not the same as conservation, adding, “killing one species in favour of another is morally indefensible”.
“Leading biologists, climate scientists and environmental watchdogs agree that climate change, habitat destruction and development are the leading causes of species loss.
“Attempting to pin the blame on cats conveniently ignores the reality that solutions to species loss rest squarely in our hands,” the group’s press release said.
Founded in 1990, Alley Cat Allies has 800,000 supporters and its work includes advocacy, humane care, education and outreach, and law and policy activism.
Anyone wishing to have their cat spayed or neutered can contact the shelter at 949-1461 or email [email protected].
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