Why Do Cat Colonies Have To Be Controlled?
Although domesticated, the cat has changed little in its behavior compared to its wild relatives. Because of this, cat colonies quickly form and populate the city when cats are abandoned.
That may seem positive. Despite being rejected by their owners, these animals have found a niche in the city. However, cat colonies are a source of disease for both cats themselves and other animals.
Cat Colonies and Diseases
There are many diseases that cats can transmit to one another. Especially between members of cat colonies as they are usually not vaccinated and live in poor hygienic conditions.
Some of these diseases, such as calicivirus, feline AIDS, feline leukemia or infectious peritonitis, are very contagious and can result in the death of the animal.
In addition, they can also transmit diseases such as rabies to humans. That is why they are a very big public health problem.
Cat colonies and wild animals
Cat colonies are related to wild animals because other food also attracts other eaters, such as wild boars, which move to the cities.
But don’t they have the right to eat? The answer is of course yes. But you have to pay attention to hygiene when feeding a cat colony. Hand out two or three bowls of cat food to avoid conflict. Give them little food or remove it before it gets dark. Use only dry food.
How can you help cat colonies?
In addition to properly feeding your cats without attracting wild animals, there are other ways you can control and help cat colonies.
Poisoning or shooting is cruelty to animals and a criminal offense. But there are other methods to protect the animals: The “capture, sterilize and release” system is the perfect solution.
Animal rights activists and doctors therefore play an important role, as the goal is to castrate these animals while giving them the appropriate vaccinations.
Feral cats are usually difficult to adopt because they are not used to living in a house. Without the ability to reproduce, cat colonies should not increase in size.
However, these cat colonies grow mainly from abandoned animals. Although these animals no longer reproduce, there will be no solution as long as you continue to abandon cats.
Therefore, it is important to draw attention to the irresponsible keeping of pets. And most importantly, prefer responsible adoption rather than compulsively buying animals from breeders.
