Feral cat care and management scheme launched in Madrid with council-funded vet bills and food
Tuesday, January 19, 2016 @ 7:32 AM
A PIONEERING programme to ensure the protection of feral cat colonies in Madrid will be run by the council's health and environmental departments, involving sterilising, chipping and feeding.
Continuing from the 'Zero Abandonment' programme launched just over a year ago, which campaigns against animals being dumped on the street – a criminal offence which can lead to prison – the scheme will be run with the help of veterinary faculties at the Complutense and Alfonso X El Sabio universities, the Municipal Police, the regional government, Madrid Veterinary College, the Guardia Civil's environmental wing SEPRONA, and the Federation of Animal Shelters, FAPAM.
A series of meetings due to conclude at the end of this month has already decided that a team will be responsible for capturing feral cats, fitting them with microchips, sterilising them and humanely 'marking' them by cutting off the point of one ear under anaesthetic so that they can be easily identified afterwards.
They will then be re-released into their original habitat, or new ones will be created in areas safer for the animals – away from heavy traffic – and where they will not cause a nuisance to local residents.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com