My Experience of the Animal Killers - Umbria

When I settled in Italy I had no intention of keeping animals, however I volunteered to nurse a seriously ill cat Mimi who was neglected by villagers to whom she belonged.  I asked them why they didn't take her to the vet, with 2 large tumors on her chest & the whole area red & raw.  Their response was; she's old.  I asked if they expected to have medical care when they're old, to which there was no response.  I rang a cat lover for help, it was she who kindly paid for Mimi to receive medical treatment & I agreed to be her nurse.  While doing so, in my cantina she gave birth to 2 kittens, to everyone's surprise, most of all the vets.  The second I saw the kittens nestling in a box I fell truly, madly & deeply in love.  I continued to nurse their mother who died in my cantina about 3 months later. She's buried in my garden.

 Madonna & Cantino

Cantino was killed by bullies, Madonna was poisoned in March 2011 at the same time as many local dogs.  

Mimi had given birth for many years to litters in an abandoned house.  They in turn gave birth to others.  Each spring when the feral kittens reached about 2 months their mothers would bring them into my garden.  Soon after, I noticed they would disappear, this happened to the autumn litters too.  It took some while before I realised that someone was poisoning them.  The house had an opening in which it was easy to throw poison inside.

Two of many feral kittens poisoned after I took this photo

One day while working in my garden I thought I saw Mouse, a feral cats playing beside me.  When I looked carefully I saw that she was convulsing.  I rang the vet, who came immediately to collect her & pumped her stomach, saving her life.  She had been poisoned with the pesticide copper sulphate.  That very day I had seen someone using copper sulphate, the same person who told me it was OK to hit cats with their car as a method of keeping their population down.  A year later Mouse died from poisoning.

Mouse

When Cantino was killed I wanted to take another kitten, however there was a kitten who had been coming to my door for food since he was very young, so I decided he deserved a home & called him Pepper.  It was he who died just after Christmas.

Pepper when he 1st visited my doorstep 

It was after Mouse died that I started to help the feral cats.  A couple years ago when a set of 4 kittens was brought to my doorstep by their mother, with great luck I was able to catch them & put them in the cantina for their safety.  I had hoped to find homes for them, however there's a massive cat population in my part of Umbria so I had no luck.  I already had 2 cats, Mamma Mia, 4 more was a huge responsibility & great expense when my funds were very low, but I had no choice.  I used to leave the windows of the cantina open so their mother Picky could have access to feed them, but she, along with 4 of the kittens in her next died the most god awful way, from an infection brought on by living in the abandoned house where the bodies of roughly 20 dead cats lay.  My friend heard her cries of pain from nearby land which we were not allowed to enter & there she died.

Picky nursing Neroni who also died a year later.

One night, just before Picky died, I heard cries outside & went out to find out why.  At the edge of my garden I found a tiny kitten crying & brought it inside.  The noise didn't stop, there was more crying, I found another on the doorstep of a neighbouring house.  Others also heard the crying but some are immune to the suffering of animals.  I brought this kitten in too & fed them both.  Unfortunately I wasn't aware that 1 of them was ill, the next morning I couldn't find it, when I did, I rang the vet with urgency.  She again came to collect it & warned me that she was very ill, sadly the vet was unable to save her, she died from the same infection as her mother Picky.  

Picky's kitten who died too

With the help of a another cat lover we had all the remaining cats in my village spayed, thus ending the  continuous feral population.  This is how to control their numbers.  It is not civilized to poison, shoot or hit any pet to control their population.  Often the people who do this have their own pets.  What gives them their right to kill ours?