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."

 

You are here: Home about animals The Trouble With Cats

Eco Environment News feeds

  • Six Portuguese young people claim inadequate policies to tackle global heating breach their human rights

    A key plank of the UK government’s defence against the biggest climate legal action in the world next week has fallen away as a result of the U-turn by the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, on green policies.

    The UK is one of 32 countries being taken to the European court of human rights on Wednesday by a group of Portuguese young people. They will argue in the grand chamber of the Strasbourg court that the nations’ policies to tackle global heating are inadequate and in breach of their human rights obligations.

    Continue reading...

  • The prime minister’s attempts to turn the climate emergency into a US-style wedge issue have dismayed veteran MPs who champion green policies

    Rishi Sunak’s decision to drive a “green wedge” between the Conservatives and Labour will take the UK into dangerous new political territory and “the worst kind of culture wars”, not seen for more than 30 years, senior Tory figures and political observers have warned.

    Reversals and delays to net zero policy announced last week will be just the start of a general election campaign in which the UK’s longstanding cross-party political consensus on climate will be increasingly at stake. Emails sent to journalists from the Conservative campaign headquarters revealed lines of attack on targets including the independent Climate Change Committee and Labour’s proposed £28bn investment in a low-carbon economy.

    Continue reading...

  • Right this way, sir

    Continue reading...

  • Group tasked with overseeing initiative to insulate homes and upgrade boilers was only set up in March

    The government’s energy efficiency taskforce, charged with reducing the UK’s energy use by 15% by 2030, has been scrapped months after it was established.

    The group, which was overseeing an initiative to insulate homes and upgrade boilers, was announced by the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, in his autumn statement last year as part of plans to boost investment in energy efficiency.

    Continue reading...

  • The tycoon, who is stepping down from News Corp and Fox, has used his outlets to promote denial and delay action, experts say

    Scientists have described the media tycoon Rupert Murdoch as a “climate villain” who has used his television and newspaper empire to promote climate science denial and delay action.

    Murdoch’s outlets, including Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and The Australian, have long been known to promote doubts about the cause and consequences of the climate crisis. Scientists said this had caused lasting damage.

    Continue reading...

  • Morecambe Bay, Lancashire:After skimming stones into the sea, we saw a rock pipit – but it was so well camouflaged we nearly missed it

    One bright September morning, my family and I headed down to the tranquil coast of Morecambe for a vintage festival. As we arrived, the salubrious autumn breeze washed over us, and the squawking seagulls welcomed us with greedy eyes. The cloudless sky was filled with birds, pirouetting above the waves. We threw smooth, small pebbles into the jaws of the sea as the waves crashed against the rocks, leaving a trail of wet sticky sand.

    As we crossed the promenade, something caught my attention. Camouflaged against a seaweed-splattered rock was a petite bird – it appeared to be a rock pipit. This distinctive, dainty creature, with legs gripped on to a boulder, had a mixture of taupe feathers, giving it a soft and sleek look. As I continued along the promenade, I wondered how many other “invisible” birds were around the coast, that I hadn’t acknowledged because of their ability to blend in with nature.

    Continue reading...

  • The teenage campaigner took politicians to task about the environment – but their apathy contributed to a devastating decline in his mental health. He talks about his recovery and the radical ideas we need to save the Earth

    Precisely how he got there, and why, he does not remember, but Charlie Hertzog Young knows that in the autumn of 2019, aged 27 and at the height of his despair, he jumped from a high building in London. He landed on concrete, split open his pelvis like a book and demolished his legs. He was bleeding out – dying – and yet managed to have a pleasant conversation with a resident of the neighbouring building who thought he was a burglar. He survived, thanks to the speedy arrival of a paramedic with specialist trauma skills. Even so, he spent a month in a coma and six months in hospital. Eventually, he was discharged with legs so damaged that they both had to be amputated. He lost his job as a researcher and his rented flat.

    The years leading to this moment are a searing story of personal and planetary pain. Aged 12, Hertzog Young worried about global heating and became a climate activist. He won a national award for founding a green council in his school. Gradually, he became a British Greta Thunberg, without the international fame or internet trolls. As the voice of youth, he was invited to global summits, including the 2009 World Economic Forum in Davos and, later that year, the UN climate summit in Copenhagen. “There are young people in communities all across the world who are trying to facilitate change,” he told the elders of Davos. “We’d like you to help us to help you.” Then, at just 17, he accosted the likes of Bill Gates and Barack Obama in corridors between events and harangued them about the urgency of taking action to stop global heating.

    Continue reading...

  • The backlash faced by Sadiq Khan in response to novel and brave measures is absurd, says Nancy Collins

    Your interview with Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, for whom I act as a solicitor in claims arising from her daughter’s death, highlights the clear need for an urgent and precise response to address the risks to health from exposure to air pollution (How anti-Ulez campaigners misused air pollution finding in Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah death, 16 September).

    The politicisation of London’s ultra-low emission zone makes a mockery of the strengthening scientific consensus that poor air quality causes severe health conditions. History will judge harshly the failure to heed these warnings.

    Continue reading...

  • UK climate watchdog said policy change would make it more difficult to meet legal commitments

    Rishi Sunak is likely to face a series of legal challenges aimed at thwarting his plans to U-turn on net zero policies amid further international condemnation of the proposals.

    Though the prime minister sought to shrug off criticism on Thursday, the UK’s independent climate watchdog joined the voices of concern, saying it was disappointed with changes that would make it more difficult for Britain to meet its legal commitments.

    Continue reading...

  • More than 4,500 people died due to hot temperatures, ONS data reveals, as rate increases over recent years

    More than 4,500 people died in England in 2022 due to high temperatures, the largest figure on record, with the number of heat-related deaths increasing over recent years.

    Between 1988 and 2022, almost 52,000 deaths associated with the hottest days were recorded in England, with a third of them occurring since 2016, data from the Office for National Statistics shows. During the same 35-year period analysed, more than 2,000 people died in Wales due to the warm temperatures.

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds