Almost twenty feral cats have been taken care of in the Drents Dierentehuis in Beilen. The former owner has left the cats behind, so the search for a new place has started and that is not so easy. In the meantime, the four-legged friends spend their time in the animal home of manager Alwin Tol.
“Here we are in one of the departments where there is currently a group of ‘farm cats’, who are looking for a new outdoor place,” says Tol, who walks into a room where the feral cats stay. “We have about thirty cats, eighteen of which come from one address. Unfortunately, the owner left them there.”
‘Cat fights vermin’
The arrival of the cats is not new to Tol. “We always have feral cats, because the Dierentehuis is a shelter in a rural area.” Given the time of year, spring, the timing of the arrival is not really favorable. “The summer crowds are approaching, which means that many kittens will come in. Stray cats also come in every day. Those are large numbers,” concludes the manager.
Tol is therefore forced to find a good outdoor place or farm for the animals, but that is not so easy. “This is due to the time of year. In winter, the cats go out more easily, because there are a lot of vermin on farms.” According to the manager, the feral cats fight pests in his or her owner’s yard.
Domestic cat compared to ‘farm cat’
The ‘farm cat’ is a different type of cat than the well-known house cat. Tol: “These are cats that were born near people, but have had little or even no contact in their first weeks of life.” According to the manager, this is the reason that the cats prefer not to be petted. “They find the people around them scary and they prefer to go their own way.”
According to Tol, the cats must be housed in a barn or farm and given additional food, but otherwise they are independent. With the domestic cat, however, this is different. “The house cat has been raised with humans and wants attention. That does not make these feral cats happy.”
Free pick up
For the shelter, the cats are quite expensive. The cats undergo a lot of treatments. “We have already vaccinated, flead, neutered or sterilized most of them,” Tol continues. “You can see this too, because we took a piece off the ear.” According to the manager, you cannot check the cats with a chip to find out whether they have been helped. “Hence this ‘eartip’, so that we can see from a distance that the animal has been helped.”
Although the cats are quite expensive for the shelter, anyone can pick them up free of charge. “We are happy for a long time when a good place for the cat is found.”
‘Stay here until a place is found’
To date, no potential owner has been to the Dierentehuis, but the manager is not worried about that. “They will stay here until we find a place.” According to Tol, the chance that it will become busier in the shelter, because of the arrival of kittens, is quite high now that the summer is about to start. “We will then have to put the cats together even more. In addition, it can cause stress for the cats and the disease pressure can increase.”
According to the manager, the cats will get a place on a farm. “In the end we will lose them again, luckily, but the problem is that it takes a long time. Some stay here for more than half a year,” Tol concludes.