Why we have the problems with all these street cats.
Too many cats - without owners, without health care - are a health risk to people and the animals themselves.
There's no excuse to allow people to abandon their pets after their contract, or allow their cats to breed and expect others to tolerate a plague of cats.
And it's a lack of understanding - or lack of caring - that sends Pest Control in to kill cats when their numbers get too high. Killing cats is just a short term fix which creates even more problems. It's only by understanding the real problems that we can create solutions.
Inappropriate Responses to the problem by compound management.
Few residential compounds make any attempt to account for the animals their tenants keep. It seems ridiculous to me that as a property owner - in most countries - I can dictate what type, and how many, pets my tenants are permitted to keep. And, on property inspections, those rules are enforced by our property managers. Yet here, there is often little more than a request to put a collar on a cat so pest control can identify it as owned.
If managers accept there is problem with cat numbers, why aren't the numbers of pets - and their breeding - regulated?
Most of the time, cat "management" doesn't address the cause of the problems.
For example:
Issues | | The Usual Response |
- Unknown number of pets owned by residents
- Don't know which cats are owned or stray
- Cats hanging around begging for food
- Unknown disease status of animals
- Too many cats
- Accidently kill some residents' pets
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- wait until a neighbour complains
- ask residents to fit cat collars
- send out notice to forbid feeding cats
- wait until someone gets sick before worrying
- get pest control to trap a few
- deny all knowledge or shift the blame
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Think that works?
Then why do we still have street cats and pest control?
By the time there are complaints there are already too many cats. If the numbers of pets people are allowed is written into their residency contracts - and enforced - it would prevent the complaints and confrontation with the pet owners before problems arise.
Collars alone prove little. People fit collars to strays because they fear Pest Control will kill them. Most abandoned pets are left with their collars on and a collar gives no accountability to any particular owner for that animal. On the other hand, my cat looses his collar about once a month and I would be very upset if that caused his removal.
Unregulated animals in over crowded conditions are unhealthy for pets and residents. Do you know any compound which allows pets and requests that they be wormed, vaccinated etc or enforces those rules?
Trapping and killing cats is neither effective nor humane. It actually creates an ecological vacuum in the population. Remaining animals breed more successfully to fill the space and new cats move in from off the streets. It actually increases animal stress and disease spread with new territorial fighting for resources and mates.
Irresponsible Animal Ownership
Most of the problem cats in our compounds have been abandoned pets or unwanted / unclaimed kittens. While there remains no attempt to keep account of their numbers and no enforcement of responsible pet ownership, the problem will remain - and multiply.
Collecting stray cats
Some residents adore cats and want to save them all. Or they feed strays and leave food out which attracts more into the area.
(learn to feed responsibly).
Effectively they collect cats. A maximum number of pets per villa isn't difficult to incorporate into a residential contract. If one household is causing the problems, why trap cats randomly in the area instead of addressing the person concerned?
Breeding more cats
If the management feels there are too many unwanted cats on the compound why are residents permitted to continue breeding more? One litter of cute little kittens quickly grows into another 4 or 5 unwanted cats. If they also breed...
The single greatest cause of unwanted pets comes from the "oh but it's so sweet and just one litter won't hurt" mentality. Why should animals be killed in pest control traps because people want to see a few kittens?
Abandoning pets
While there is no accountability for animal ownership there is nothing to stop residents leaving their pets behind. Sometimes they die of exposure - especially over summer, when many people leave on vacation. Sometimes they are trapped by pest control. The best chance is they will become someone else's problem.
If we have villa clearance procedures, why can't pets be incorporated into this to ensure provision has been made for them too?
Food attracts ferals
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Feral and stray cats will try to survive on whatever they can find to eat. Naturally they should be eating small birds, rodents etc but if they can find kapsa or shawarma left overs, they'll take what they can get.
It's not natural or healthy but if food smells and waste are around so are the street cats looking for it.
Waste collection and disposal is something that is under the compound management's control.
I've been pretty disgusted at some compounds which have open skip bins sitting inside their residential areas, many of which have street cats feeding in the rubbish! We often pay over the odds for compound villas here - compared to what we could get at home. Bins like that are vermin magnets, and they really do stink. Is it too much to ask they provide a few covered bins and an efficient rubbish collection?
What about asking the Security posts and Nat. Guard to keep their areas clean? Impossible? It is law in the kingdom not to litter. Their dinner scraps and rubbish often attract street cats around the compound entrance which then make their way inside. Are they really exempt from respecting the law and our home?
Some residents leave food out for cats because they feel sorry for them. If feeding street cats isn't done responsibly it will only attract more unwanted cats and vermin - and annoy the neighbours.
There is a correct way to feed stray cats (read how here) and if it's done correctly it can stop them being a nuiscence by scavenging. But if not, it can contribute significantly to the problems.
Compound managers and housing officers don't really have the moral high ground to forbid people from feeding cats when their waste control is the main thing attracting them in and when there is no policy to control the cat numbers humanely. These people are only feeling sorry for the animals.
It was narrated that Ibn 'Umar said:
"The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said: 'A woman entered Hell because of a cat which she tied up and did not feed, nor did she let it loose to feed upon the vermin of the earth.' "
(Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 3140; Muslim, 2242).
People who feed cats are showing compassion for the situation we have created for them. Improve the situation; with responsible animal ownership, humane population control and correct waste control instead of just punishing people who have kind hearts.
BUT ensure those people who feed cats are part of the solution not the problem.
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The problem is multiplying out of control.
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The single biggest problem with cat population control is their breeding.
Cats breed like rabbits. Pest Control is killing cats off as fast as they can reproduce and we still have too many cats!
If there is a problem with their numbers, why do managers allow continued breeding of residents' pets and the cats they feed in the gardens?
Do the Maths for yourself;
If a female cat produces (on average) 4.8 kittens, twice a year, assuming half of those are also female and survive to breed...(find out here)
How many cats do you have after 2 years?
We have a rule on our compound that if a cat is allowed outdoors it is required to be neutered. If people don't want to neuter their animals (although it's in the animals' advantage) they can simply keep them inside. There's no need for other animals to suffer because some people don't take responsibility for theirs.
Besides, if you are trapping street cats anyway, why not treat them humanely and neuter them instead of killing or dumping them? Attempts at eradication are pointless with the thousands that live just outside, and the breeding rates of the ones you miss. Read about the vacuum effect here.
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Trap-Neuter-Return stops the breeding and provides better population control.
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Why trying to kill off the street cats doesn't work.
Despite all these issues we don't really have a
plague of cats. The primary reason is because the death rates are so high.
But still, most compounds, hospitals, parks etc employ some means of pest control to keep their numbers down.
Culling cats does not provide an effective or humane solution to control cat numbers
Culling creates, what we call,
an ecological vacuum; i.e. external animals migrate in to take advantage of newly available resources and remaining animals breed more successfully while resource competition is reduced.
Additionally, culling increases the spread of disease secondary to animal migration and re-establishment of territories and new mates.
Repetitive trap and cull programmes are widely regarded as inhumane.
Read about the alternative here. Trap - Neuter - Return
it really works.
It's not all their fault
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Although the situation is a managerial problem it's not entirely our managers' fault. There simply aren't any animal charities or humane societies here to pick up the pieces of unwanted animals. There have been no alternatives, to Pest Control, to control cat numbers. Few people are willing - or able - to assist with the problems and if they are, private veterinarians are few and expensive.
It's time to change that.
It only takes one keen volunteer, in each compound, to run a humane animal control programme. And we can help you, help the animals, your manager and the other residents. Ask us how.
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Take advantage of the information of our Solutions Page, and in particular how you can start a Trap-Neuter-Return programme to control cat numbers on your compound.
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Residents live in denial of the problems.
Most of the problems we have with cats - and the cats suffer from - are of our own making. By denying there are issues, we avoid looking for solutions.
The facts are that:
- we have too many cats,
- most compounds use no effective or humane control over their numbers,
- and enforce no regulations to protect community health.
It’s time to start thinking instead of assuming.
There are problems out there. The examples below are from my own compound - these sorts of things happen all the time, right where we live.
If you care, care enough to help make a difference.
Photo 1.
This female cat died giving birth. Un-neutered female street cats have a life expectancy of only 3 years. Had she been reported to cat rescue, she could have been neutered before this happened, to live out a better life.
Photo 2.
One of a litter of kittens found dead under the house where they were abandoned when the residents left for summer vacation. Less than half the kittens born on the street survive until weaning. Don’t assume cats can take care of themselves, many can’t - especially over summer.
Photo 3.
This kitten has lost both its eyes to cat ‘flu’. Unvaccinated, untreated feral animals are a health risk to other pets – and potentially us too. Poor nutrition and over crowded conditions makes disease spread worse.
Photo 4
This cat had been a pet. He was very friendly but when he got sick (with no ID on his collar and no registration) no one knew who he belonged to. It was too late to save him when the vet was called by a concerned neighbour.
His owners never reported him missing.
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