We talk so much about dogs and how we work to help them but this isn't because we don't care about cats, they are just a more noticeable problem as far as overpopulation and illness is concerned. We are just as concerned about helping improve the lives of stray cats in Krabi as well but since they are solitary creatures and sort of keep their illness and other problems to themselves, we don't get a chance to focus on them nearly as much as we do dogs. Cats are very intelligent creatures that also happen to be very fast so even if we do know about a cat that needs help, trapping them is considerably more difficult or even impossible than it is to do so to a dog.
A dog will wander into a snap-trap for a snack. A cat, even a very hungry or injured cat, will watch you from afar with suspicion and not have anything to do with it.
We held a cat sterilization program recently and reached out to the public to bring their cat - cats ONLY - to the event to have their cat sterilized free of charge. We also asked in the advertisements for people to please focus on cats that live outdoors that aren't really "their" cats and for only the truly needy to attend. Except for one person that turned up in a $50,000 SUV, I feel as though most of the people who brought cats in actually did genuinely need the help.
I think most people that have had cats and dogs are aware that cats are considerably more difficult to handle than dogs are. They are also more likely to lash out at you if they are scared or uncomfortable. Therefore, we had to be significantly more cautious during this event than we had to be for our usual dog events. Cats also tend to fight with other cats much more than dogs, so we couldn't just let them wander around. There is also the situation of a cat will flee an area if in fear where a dog will tend to just stay put.
It was kind of cute how our waiting area was filled with a ton of mewing in these makeshift cat carriers that are popular in Thailand. It was kind of important that the people the cats were familiar with be at least somewhat involved in the process because these animals were very nervous being around a lot of people that they do not know and also being in such close proximity to other strange cats. The process is carried out entirely by professionals and the veterinarians are very familiar with how to handle all manner of cats.
Some people, who were normally poor farmers from a remote village, would come in with rather large crates that they borrowed from us with many cats all contained in the same carrier. It was nice to see that these people over time have become aware of how important it is to not simply allow cats to replicate like mad because they have seen with their own eyes how quickly a cat population can explode in a small area. You probably already know this, but people in remote areas, especially farmers, tend to keep cats as domesticated pets in order to keep other pests like rats, mice, squirrels, and even monkeys off of their crops. Cats also tend to eat their prey and I know from having a relative who owned a farm that there is a real science to having cats be "working cats." You need to feed them so they know who their master and caretaker is, but you always want to keep them a little bit hungry so they will do their job and work the farm to hunt for prey.
I also know from my own experience from that same farm that an uncle of mine worked on, that without intervention the cats will continually have litters until the population becomes too large. Then they will kill all of the potential prey and unless you have tons of food for them, starvation and disease sets in and this causes the entire population to suffer and likely die. We would like to prevent that from happening and this is why we held the program. We were expecting around 20 or so cats to be brought in but were a little overwhelmed and delighted when nearly 100 cats were brought in for sterilization.
Don't worry. These cats are not in any pain nor are they dead. They are simply sleeping off the anesthesia drugs necessary to perform the very simple and quick sterilization process. As soon as they start to stir, and they are monitored constantly, they are relocated to a crate near the person that brought them in.
Most of the cats were female as we had indicated on the signs and social media posts we put out there, but some of them were males. We still sterilized the males even though this is not generally what we do and this process is significantly easier and I am sure you can figure out why that is. In both cases the operation is completely painless and most cats can go back to their regular lives within a few days.
Sterilization is such an easy process that any veterinarian, even those who are fresh out of medical school (as many of our volunteers are) can easily perform this operation in under 10 minutes. It is one of the most simplistic and basic operations that exists in animal medicine. It also tends to be one of the cheapest.
If you have a cat and it is not sterilized you may be asking for a problem later. Sure, we all like kittens, but kittens grow up pretty fast and the next thing you know you will have 30 cats on your property. This, for most people, is completely untenable and is a problem that is much better solved before rather than after.
I want all of you cat owners or even people who simply know a cat in their area that is friendly and wanders around to consider getting that animal sterilized. It helps the stray population a great deal by simply doing this one thing. In most places in the world there is a foundation like our own that will perform the process for you for free as well. So please, have a look or if you would like to ask me about such an operation in your area, I can access our network to find out a place nearby for you.
if you would like to see how you can help out or simply spread the word, please visit our website at
http://krabianimalwelfare.org
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!CHARY:6 + The authors charity organization, Krabi Animal Welfare, has directly helped nearly 100 stray cats in Krabi Province through a free sterilization program.
Cats are more independent than dogs generally speaking and I guess the stray problem is possibly worse than the dogs, but you would not notice it as much. At our old warehouse there must have been 30 strays living there.
well the answer to that is that it kind of depends on the area. Cats experience great difficulty in finding shelter here in Krabi because property, even unused property, is normally sealed off so they can't get in. They find a way of course but a lot of kittens are abandoned by the mothers as well. I can't speak for the world though but that is the way it is here.