Eco Hvar

The Trouble With Cats

Published in About Animals

The sufferings of Hvar's cats blight an otherwise happy visit to Hvar.

Stella's postcard from Canada Stella's postcard from Canada Lidija Biro

Lidija Biro has been on Hvar for three months studying wine-making. Her visit has been highly successful from many points of view, but she is concerned about the sad fate of so many poor cats on the island. As she explains:

"Hvar is an incredibly beautiful island to visit. Its charms are many, the sea, the steep mountainsides abundantly fragrant with lavender, rosemary, fennel, and mint.

Terraced vineyards and olive groves hint at delicious wines and oils to enhance any meal. Lovely hilltop villages with friendly people and sophisticated sea-side towns offer everything a tourist could want and need.

But there is an ugly side to life on Hvar. Cats!

There is an abundance of unwanted, homeless, hungry and sick or injured cats that roam the towns and villages meowing for a morsel or a gentle pat.

The locals say, “It’s the tourists! They feed them all summer and then go away. But the cats remain.”

No, dear people of Hvar, it’s not the tourists who are to blame, it’s you. Simply, have your cats neutered. There are too many for you and the tourists to look after.

The price for the procedure is less than the cost of the abuse suffered by kittens and abandoned cats on a daily basis ... slow death by starvation, poisoning or a quicker death under the wheels of a car.

During my stay on the island, I have seen dead kittens in the tunnel to Zavala, young cats dropped off in upper Pitve, hungry, dirty cats in every alleyway of your beautiful towns. My heart broke the other day when on a walk along the sea, an orange and white kitten meowed at me for some comfort as he hobbled closer with a displaced or broken hip.

As my three months on Hvar come to and end, I have done my part by helping to feed the cats of upper Pitve and contributing to the establishment of an animal shelter. I am also taking one of the stray kittens back to Canada with me.

So what about you? Will you do your part ... and neuter your cat?

The tourists will thank you!"

© Lidija Biro, November 2014

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be measured by the way its animals are treated." Mahatma Gandhi

 

POST-SCRIPT : AFTER HVAR

Lidija Biro contacted Eco Hvar in late September by e-mail, when Stella the kitten first arrived in her life: "I am renting a house in a village on Hvar, and a stray kitten turned up hiding in the entry to the house. The kitten does not belong to anyone of the neighbours (I asked). I am from Canada and will be leaving in November so I would like to find a home for her/him(?) soon before we get too attached. Can you help? I am taking the kitten to the vet in Stari Grad for deworming. Thank you." 

This was one of several such queries received by Eco Hvar during the year. Usually, our advice is to feed the cat outdoors, and let it find its way in its own environment. However, Stella had already been taken in, washed, de-wormed, given a collar, fed all sorts of special foods, and had definitely become a house cat. Despite having a strong character, she was small and unlikely to survive on her own in a sometimes hostile environment. So our advice was that, unless a similar level of home comfort could be found for Stella, Lidija and her family should take her with them when they left, if they possibly could.

And so it was that Stella embarked on a Great Journey, taking in Međugorje, Mostar, Sarajevo, Kutjevo and Zagreb among other beautiful places. She proved to be a good and resilient traveller. From Zagreb, Lidija reported: "Stella Bella has been a good traveler so far although she gets up way too early (around 5 a.m.) and meows for her breakfast." As no suitable home had been found for Stella on her travels so far, she went on the next stage of her odyssey, which proved to be much more of a trial for her, despite her special cat-box supplied with food and water: "Stella Bella survived the plane trip … just barely. She was cold, wet, and frightened by the time we arrived in Toronto … but she is a little survivor and recuperated very quickly."

Once in her new home, all was well: "Stella is happy, safe and enjoying the run of a large house (Mom’s) here in Mississauga. She has been watching with fascination the snow falling and the squirrels hopping about the back garden. Right now, we have decided that she is to be an indoor cat. But come the mild weather in Spring and Summer, we may let her out. I am sure she is missing her outdoor romps and her cat friends on Hvar."

 

Related items

More in this category: « Nola, a happy rescue tale Bobi, the dog who didn't need to die »
back to top
You are here: Home about animals The Trouble With Cats

Eco Environment News feeds

  • Nanoplastic pollution found at both of Earth’s poles for first time

    Tiny particles including tyre dust found in ice cores stretching back 50 years, showing global plastic contamination

    Nanoplastic pollution has been detected in polar regions for the first time, indicating that the tiny particles are now pervasive around the world.

    The nanoparticles are smaller and more toxic than microplastics, which have already been found across the globe, but the impact of both on people’s health is unknown.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘Just a new fossil fuel industry’: Australia to send first shipment of liquefied hydrogen to Japan

    Morrison government hails engineering milestone but researchers raise concerns and say it could increase emissions

    Australia will export its first load of liquefied hydrogen made from coal in an engineering milestone which researchers say could also lock in a new fossil fuel industry and increase the country’s carbon emissions.

    Under the $500m Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain (HESC) pilot project, hydrogen will be made in Victoria’s LaTrobe valley from brown coal and transported aboard a purpose-built ship to Japan, where it will be burned in coal-fired power plants.

    Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

    Continue reading...

  • The week in wildlife – in pictures

    The best of this week’s wildlife pictures, including beluga whales, a ‘snow fairy’ and two egrets hitching a lift

    Continue reading...

  • More than 30,000 jobs at risk if insulation levy cut from fuel bills

    Government considers scrapping scheme that pays for energy efficiency measures for poorer households

    More than 30,000 jobs would be put at risk if the government were to scrap the energy bill levy that pays for home insulation improvements for poor households, the industry has warned.

    Ministers are mooting an end to the Energy Company Obligation (ECO), a £1bn levy on energy bills that pays for energy efficiency measures for people on low incomes. The energy price cap is expected to rise by about £700 to £2,000 for the average household bill in April, after a surge in gas prices.

    Continue reading...

  • Under the sea: Ocean Art 2021 underwater photo competition – in pictures

    Stunning images from the 10th year of the worldwide Ocean Art underwater photo competition. Thousands of entries from 81 countries were judged with the winners including nine taken in Australia

    Continue reading...

  • UK energy industry urges ministers to stick with net zero plan

    Some rightwingers claim renewables have increased costs, but Energy UK blames over-reliance on gas

    Energy companies want the government to implement policies to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions, the industry’s leader has said, despite claims from some on the political right that high energy prices should spark a rethink.

    Emma Pinchbeck, chief executive of Energy UK, which represents the industry, said: “The government should press on with net zero policies. That’s something they still need to do. We are missing the carbon budgets.”

    Continue reading...

  • Country diary: The frost is so bright I can hardly see the stars

    Stamford, Lincolnshire: It’s the coldest night in winter. I almost enjoy the sense of it working its way inside me

    It’s the coldest night of the winter. Just hours ago, the world was agleam with wet cold, now – with the dark – it’s solid cold. Things that rustled now rattle, and the grass is in a beautiful rigour of felty frost. It catches the moonlight and sparkles, a miracle that turns the colourless and drab suddenly starkly beautiful under the light of the dark.

    Clear winter nights like this are wonderful for stars. That, and to just go out and feel the cold and its tight silence around you. I stand and breathe deep, exhaling stiff, granular steam. And I start to feel it as it works its way in. Fingers, feet, nose. Then deeper, like an alarm of rising volume. Stand still enough for long enough and it takes hold of your core, a sickly pain, that – left long enough – will stop your life.

    Continue reading...

  • Britishvolt gets £100m boost to build UK’s first large-scale ‘gigafactory’

    The deal to build an electric car battery plant near Blyth will bring up to 3,000 jobs to the area by 2028

    The UK government will invest £100m in Britishvolt as the car battery manufacturing startup seeks to build Britain’s first large-scale “gigafactory” in the north-east of England.

    The government’s Automotive Transformation Fund will invest alongside asset management company Abrdn and its majority-owned property investment arm, Tritax, to fund a sale and leaseback deal for the huge building that will house the electric car battery factory, near Blyth in Northumberland.

    Continue reading...

  • Greens v ‘beefatarians’: Europeans go to war over their dinner

    With meat consumption twice the global average, citizens of EU27 have to reconcile environmental concerns and culinary traditions

    A row over meat consumption in Spain over the last month is just the most recent eruption of the debate all over Europe, as the continent grapples with making its famous cuisines more sustainable.

    Food is inextricably intertwined with national identity for countries in continental Europe; a good steak, with perfect fritesstacked beside it; a plate of wafer thin carpaccio, drizzled with dressing or plain old olive oil; wurst, served with good mustard; jamón ibérico laced with creamy white fat.

    Continue reading...

  • Staff blow whistle on Environment Agency that ‘no longer deters polluters’

    Exclusive: Officers say cuts and operational decisions have made England’s regulator ‘toothless’

    Staff at England’s Environment Agency say it has been cut back to such an extent that they cannot do their jobs and the regulator is no longer a deterrent to polluters.

    Three officers at the EA have described to the Guardian and Ends Report how they are increasingly unable to hold polluters to account or improve the environment as a result of the body’s policies.

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds

  • In Hawai’i, invasive fish finds a new foe: chefs

    In partnership with Conservation International, chefs in Hawaiʻi are cooking up creative ways to control invasive species populations.

  • Climate change, extreme weather among top risks facing humanity: 3 stories you may have missed

    Editor's note: News about conservation and the environment is made every day, but some of it can fly under the radar. In a recurring feature, Conservation News shares three stories from the past week that you should know about.

    1. 1,000 experts & leaders say “climate action failure” is perceived as top global risk

    Climate change and environmental degradation are among the gravest threats to humanity, says a new report.

    The story:The World Economic Forum’s annual Global Risk Report this year finds that the top five long-term risks to our world are all environmental — with climate action failure, extreme weather and biodiversity loss ranking as the most severe. Risks were gathered from surveys with approximately 1,000 experts and leaders, Ashira Morris reports for World War Zero. Though climate change has already arrived “in the form of droughts, fires, floods, resource scarcity and species loss, among other impacts,” current climate commitments are not sufficient to meet the challenge, according to the report. 

    The big picture: “The World Economic Forum finds public and private-sector leaders in broad agreement … decisive climate action cannot wait,” Conservation International CEO M. Sanjayan told World War Zero. “To date, the industrialized world has consistently failed to make good on their climate promises. As we look ahead to COP27,” — the international climate negotiations set for later this year in Egypt — “governments, companies and financial institutions must not only increase their own decarbonization ambitions — they must make fairness a priority [for] communities on the frontlines of climate change.” 

    Read more here.

    2. The great Siberian thaw 

    Russia’s frozen lands contain vast amounts of carbon, which is being released as the permafrost melts.

    The story:In northeastern Russia’s boreal forests, where permafrost can be a kilometer deep, annual temperatures have risen by more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) since the Industrial Revolution — twice the global average, Joshua Yaffa writes for The New Yorker. Climate change, exacerbated by deforestation and wildfires, is melting the permafrost. As it thaws, once-frozen organic matter — everything from woolly mammoth remains to tree stumps — is releasing “a constant belch of carbon dioxide and methane,” writes Yaffa. This fuels a dangerous feedback loop: Greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere lead to higher temperatures, which in turn contribute to further melting these frozen soils.  

    The big picture:“Irrecoverable carbon” refers to the vast stores of carbon in nature that are vulnerable to release from human activity and, if lost, could not be restored by 2050 — when the world must reach net-zero emissions to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Due in part to its massive land area, Russia contains the most irrecoverable carbon of any country, with high concentrations in its boreal peatlands and forests, according a recent studyby Conservation International, which mapped irrecoverable carbon around the world — providing policymakers with the clearest view yet on the areas that most need to be protected. 

    One mountainous region, the East Russian taiga in the southeast corner of the county, contains 2 percent of Earth’s irrecoverable carbon — and the last Siberian tiger range — making it a priority for protection, experts say.

    Read more here.

    3. A third of commodity-hungry firms have no deforestation policy — report

    Companies that supply the world’s commodities are also driving deforestation, according to a new report. 

    The story:Protecting forests is critical to limiting climate change, yet a third of the 350 companies most involved in commodities such as soy, beef and palm oil lack policies to ensure their products do not contribute to deforestation, reports Simon Jessop for Reuters. According to Global Canopy’s annual “Forest 500” report, 93 of the world's 150 leading financial institutions — providing US$ 5.5 trillion in finance — do not have a deforestation policy covering their lending to companies in key commodity supply chains. 

    The big picture:Each year, large swaths of tropical forests are destroyed to make room for palm oil, cattle, soy and other commodity-driven agriculture. But this destruction of nature comes at a climate cost; tropical deforestation accounts for 8 percentof annual emissions, equivalent to those released by the entire European Union. 

    In November, at the UN global climate summit known as COP26, more than 100 countries — accounting for about 86 percent of the world’s forests — committed to stop deforestation on their lands by the end of this decade. In addition, more than 30 financial institutions pledged to eliminate deforestation driven by agriculture from their portfolios and increase investments in nature-based solutions by 2025. 

    “The new political space created at COP26 can pave the way for stronger and more broadly applicable legal frameworks … but these proposals could be strengthened, and must be enforced, with clear accountability and penalties for breaches,” according to the “Forest 500” report.

    Read more here.

    Vanessa Bauza is the editorial director at Conservation International. Want to read more stories like this? Sign up for email updates here. Donate to Conservation International here.

    Cover image: Alder Fire in Yellowstone National Park (© Mike Lewelling, National Park Service)

  • To protect mangroves, the secret is in the soil: 3 stories you may have missed

    In case you missed it: Carbon offsets are helping protect mangroves and support local communities in Colombia, a vacuum could help pull genetic information for wildlife from the sky and more.

  • Experts: UN climate talks a ‘turning point’ — but pledges must become progress

    The UN climate talks (COP26) yielded key climate commitments. Our experts weigh in on the main takeaways — plus needed next steps.

  • In new film, top scientists urge action to avoid Earth’s ‘tipping point’

    Earth is teetering perilously close to a tipping point — but it’s not too late to bring us back from the edge, says Conservation International’s Chief Scientist Johan Rockström in a new Netflix film.

  • Renewable energy is surging — literally: 3 stories you may have missed

    In case you missed it: Solar and wind power gain traction as global coal consumption plummets, violence and extreme weather pushed millions from their homes last year, and a growing number of people care about protecting nature.

  • Newest ‘walking’ shark heralds brighter future for Indonesia’s sharks and rays

    Learn how Indonesia has taken incredible steps to protect these fascinating — and valuable — creatures.

  • Airline industry clears forest-carbon credits for takeoff

    In a historic announcement, the global civil aviation industry has paved the way for airlines to help neutralize their climate footprint by protecting nature.

  • Pope’s plea, reef collapse, rewilding: 3 stories you may have missed

    In case you missed it: Pope Francis is imploring people to protect nature, the world’s largest coral reef is facing mass die-offs and restoring one-third of the Earth’s most degraded ecosystems is crucial to slowing climate change.

  • Surging emissions, raining plastic, pregnancy risks: 3 stories you may have missed

    In case you missed it: Global greenhouse gas emissions are rapidly rising as countries ease COVID-19 restrictions, plastic pollution is growing across national parks in the western United States, and new research revealed that heat and air pollution could cause birthing problems for pregnant women, especially for Black mothers.

Copyright © 2022 Eco Hvar. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Orion Informatika.