Last month, two stray cats were picked up by the animal ambulance in Schalkwijk in one day. One cat had just given birth and the other gave birth in the ambulance. In various Haarlem neighborhoods and especially in the neighborhoods with a high percentage of social housing, stray cats are a nuisance.
To do something about this, Ariane Walberg of the Zuid-Kennemerland Animal Protection tries to catch cats in the Slaughterhouse District. “It is more important that people who now take a cat or kitten, have them neutered or sterilized. I really want to call for this. We have more than enough cats in the Netherlands and too many live a wandering existence.”
Armed with two cages and a lot of patience, Ariane spends the afternoon in the neighborhood. “I can’t leave the cages unattended so I have to wait,” she explains. Reporter Maurice Blaauw accompanied her.
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Join animal protection on cat catching expedition – NH News
Prior to this week, she went around the neighborhood handing out flyers. “In the flyer we announce our action and ask if people still have a cat that needs to be chipped. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a response to this. I’m just looking at it positively and hope that all cats here are chipped,” says Ariane.
In the near future, microchipping of cats will become mandatory. “That’s a good rule. The question is, how are you going to enforce it?” Ariane doesn’t know. She often finds that it costs too much for some people, just like neutering or spaying.
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“Cats with or without a boss walk outside and an unhelped cat reproduces itself. This only exacerbates the problem. That is why we are in this neighborhood today. Hundreds of cats have come here in recent years,” says Ariane.
People who have little money often get into trouble when their cat becomes pregnant. The number of cats in the house multiplies just like the costs. “As a result, it is ultimately unstoppable,” Ariane reports. Who also notes that most people do not want twenty cats in their home.
Unfortunately, she sometimes also notices that people opt for a litter, but that it doesn’t work out so well afterwards and then they bring the mother cat with her kittens to the shelter. “That makes me really angry, just aggressive.”
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When a cat ends up in the catch cage, as in the image above, it is first scanned. “If the cat has a chip and an owner, we will of course release it again”, Ariane laughs. If that is not the case, the cat will be taken to the shelter where a vet will check the cat and then castrate or sterilize and chip. then put the cat in someone’s house.
“When placement is not possible because they are really wild, we bring them back to the environment they came from, or to a place where we can keep an eye on them,” says Ariane.