Madonna & Cantino
Cantino was killed by bullies, Madonna was poisoned in March 2011 at the same time as many local dogs.
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?
This is tragic series of events and I hope something can be done to stop people poisoning these innocent creatures. In Australia, where I live, feral cats, which can grow to a very large size, are thought to be a threat to our wildlife and are regarded as pests. I have no doubt that many of them are also killed, but have no idea of the numbers nor of the methods that may be used.
ReplyDeleteI had a Whippet who would eat anything he found and if I approached him to remove what he was eating, he'd snatch the food and run off with it to continue eating out of my reach. I know positively that if there had ever been baits or poison put out where I used to take him to run, he'd also have been a victim and it would have broken my heart. A friend's little Jack Russell terrier was poisoned by a cranky old neighbour who complained about the dog getting into his garden. Whilst I believe the owners should have taken more care to keep the dog out of the garden as the man had complained often, there is no forgiving someone who could do that to an innocent creature.
Tiggy, animal lover and protector