Eco Hvar

Feeding cats in Brela

Published in Forum items
I am staying at the Hotel Berulia in Brela and have been feeding a mother,father and five kittens about (10 weeks old). Do they get rid of the kittens in the winter when there are no guests?
I know my airline takes pets, but this may be very traumatic for them and it would be difficult to leave some. I have 5 days till I go back to Zagreb for a flight back on Mon, so there is not a lot of time. Can you help or give me advice?
G., UK Visitor to Brela (a coastal resort on the Dalmatian mainland), 14th July 2014
 
I am sorry I couldn't reply to your email earlier, and obviously I am now too late to advise you before your return home.. I have been away, and am just catching up with the backlog.
During the summer, cats in the tourist resorts are generally well looked after by kind people like yourself. In the normal course of things, the mother will gradually find alternative sources of food for her kittens, and set them on their way to independent living. It is a good thing if the mother is given the opportunity to keep her kittens long enough to teach them what they need to know, and to bring about the natural separation.
Although they are dependent on humans to a great extent, cats are also very canny, and usually find ways of ensuring their survival. The main problem facing them here as elsewhere is the question of feeding increasing numbers if they are allowed to breed without any control. Where cat numbers are considered excessive, then sadly there is little help provided for them: there is no provision for sterilizing them, except privately by individuals, and very few catteries where they can be taken in and given basic shelter and support. Obviously one of Eco Hvar's aims is to remedy this situation, at least on Hvar.
I hope it will reassure you to think that 'your' kittens will almost certainly be fed and petted through the summer, so that by the time autumn comes they will be mature enough to hold their own.
I very much hope that you enjoyed your stay in Brela, one of the Dalmatian coast's many beautiful places.
Eco Hvar 23rd July 2014
 
Thank you for your reassuring reply. I managed to find out most if the information with regards to the cats. Although the airline I was travelling with did carry animals, the problem was the pet passport. If they are too young to get the rabies jag (which by the size of them I think they were), they would have to go in to quarantine for 6 months. The nearest one where I live is 3 hours away, so it would be difficult to maintain a relationship with them. It would also have been extremely traumatic removing them from their mother and then placing them in the cattery for 6 months. U.K. is very strict, I could have sorted it, if they could have got the rabies blood test, as you only have to wait 21days, and I would have got someone to look after them for this time. It was not  to be, and yes it would be better if there was a neutering program - but this costs money and sometimes countries have other priorities.
I loved Brela and the  Dalmatian coastline was spectacular - unfortunately I didn't make it to Hvar - maybe next time!  I wish you well in your venture, and if there is anything I can help with (I will check your website again for updates) let me know and I will try to help.
G., 24th July 2014
More in this category: « Stray cat in Hvar Town Glyphosate comment »
back to top
You are here: Home forum items Feeding cats in Brela

Eco Environment News feeds

  • Environment Agency too weak to tackle illegal waste dumping, MPs say

    Regulator for England lacks powers to deal with what the public accounts committee calls an ‘out-of-control plague’

    The Environment Agency is too weak to tackle an “out-of-control plague” of waste dumping, a powerful group of MPs has said.

    The public accounts committee (PAC) said the EA had gaps in its powers and intelligence gathering which meant it was not set up to deal effectively with the rise in waste dumping.

    Continue reading...

  • US has caused $10tn worth of climate damage since 1990, research finds

    US, top carbon emitter in history, has ‘a lot of responsibility’ for causing ‘substantial’ harm globally, scientist says

    The US has caused an eye-watering $10tn in global damages to the world over the past three decades through its vast planet-heating emissions, with a quarter of this economic pain inflicted upon itself, new research has found.

    By being the largest carbon emitter in history, the US has caused greater harm to worldwide economic growth than any other country, ahead of China, now the world’s largest emitter that is responsible for $9tn in GDP damage since 1990, according to the findings of the paper.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘It’s like flowers on steroids’: what happened when scientists heated a Rocky Mountain wildlife meadow by 2C?

    A long-running experiment in Colorado provides an ‘alarming’ view of how rapidly unchecked global heating could transform fragile ecosystems

    Every summer, people descend on the wildflower capital of Colorado to see grasslands flush with corn lilies, aspen sunflowers and sub-alpine larkspur. In January 1991, scientists set up a unique experiment in these Rocky Mountain meadows. It was one of the first (and longest running) to work out how the changing climate would affect an ecosystem.

    At the time, it was believed a temperature increase could lead to longer, lusher grasses. But instead of flourishing, the grasses and wildflowers started to disappear, replaced by sage brush. The experimental meadows morphed into a desert-like scrubland. Even the fungi in the soils were transformed by heat.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘Seriously wrong’: flood-hit Lincolnshire residents at odds with Reform MP over climate

    Constituents’ frustration with Richard Tice reflects growing problem for party and its leaders’ climate-sceptic stance

    “The worst part of it was the smell,” says Audrey Crook, 58. A full-time carer who lives with her 20-year-old son, Crook woke up at 11pm one night to find a foot of flood water on the ground floor of her home. “It was like black water. It had sewage and everything in it, it was absolutely disgusting.”

    Crook’s home – along with more than 30 others on Wyberton West Road and Park Road in Boston, Lincolnshire – was flooded in January last year when heavy rain swept across the region, raising river levels and exceeding flood defences.

    Continue reading...

  • Green energy boss backs more North Sea oil and gas production from existing sites

    GB Energy’s Jürgen Maier says production could bring economic benefits and give supply chains ‘time to transition’ to renewables

    The head of the UK’s national green energy champion has joined other high-profile renewable energy leaders in making the case for more North Sea oil and gas production as the government braces for an energy cost crisis.

    The GB Energy boss, Jürgen Maier, used a social media post on LinkedIn to reject the claim that more North Sea oil and gas could help to bring down energy costs, which have soared as the war in Iran has escalated.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘Denial machine’: climate misinformation is fuelling conflict in Australian communities, inquiry finds

    The report also recommends government do more to make tech companies liable for ‘psychosocial harms’

    Australia’s climate change and energy “information ecosystem” is fuelling conflict in communities, with misinformation and disinformation confusing the public, slowing renewable energy projects and undermining policy responses to the climate crisis, a cross-party Senate inquiry has concluded.

    The inquiry’s final report, released on Tuesday evening, recommended the government do more to make tech companies liable for “psychosocial harms” spread on their platforms.

    Continue reading...

  • Country diary: My garden log pile is teeming with life | Kate Bradbury

    Hove, East Sussex: Loading it up with many different species – oak, elder, hazel, willow and birch – has turned it into a thriving ecosystem

    In the garden, the log pile is a whole world. I hear frogs croaking from within it, I watch wrens foraging for insects. It’s a mixture of different species: apple from neighbours who were cutting a tree down, walnut from a pollarded giant at the allotment, hawthorn lost to a storm.

    There’s also oak, elder, hazel, willow and birch. I stop tree surgeons and ask if I can take a log or two, replacing the sadness of another felled tree with the hope of the life its dead wood will support. I like taking new logs home for my log pile.

    Continue reading...

  • How weaving, glamping and kayak tours are helping to tackle deforestation in Argentina’s Gran Chaco

    Small farmers and community-led conservation groups are trying to protect one of the biggest semi-arid forests in the world – under threat from expanding agriculture, wildfires and the ‘logging mafia’

    Jorge Luna stands in a piece of Argentina’s Gran Chaco forest that he calls his own. Birds sing as he surveys skyscraping molle trees, known as pepper trees, palo santo and algarrobo, or carob trees. “It’s good wood,” says Luna, 55. “I was about to cut them down.”

    Selling timber promises quick and easy money in the sprawling ecosystem that covers parts of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Brazil. But it comes at a steep price, contributing to rampant deforestation and irreversible damage to the forest.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘It smells like a rancid fish and chip shop’: at sea with the Antarctic’s krill supertrawlers

    The fishery is regulated but experts say it is wrecking the food chain. Gordon Peake joined a Sea Shepherd mission to observe the giant ships compete for catch

    It is bitterly cold on the deck of the Allankay and the bosun, Luca Massari, is checking that none of us are wearing contact lenses before we descend into Antarctic waters. There is a risk, he warns, that lenses will freeze solid over the eyes. Massari himself is prepared for his surroundings. He is wearing thick goggles that make him look like an Olympic ski jumper.

    Massari is a burly, heavily tattooed veteran of the environmental organisation Sea Shepherd, which campaigns against exploiting the oceans. His deck team are preparing to launch the ship’s small boat, which Massari will helm. Eight of us are bundled in bright red dry suits, helmets and lifejackets; the average time to survive hypothermia in this wind-whipped water is just five minutes.

    The Allankay sailed to Coronation Island from New Zealand to document the krill fishing. Photograph: Alice Bacou/Sea Shepherd

    Continue reading...

  • ‘There’s biological treasure here’: Chile’s endemic seals gain protection with new marine park

    Sixty years after the discovery of a colony of Juan Fernández fur seals, previously thought to be extinct, a landmark agreement extends ‘no take’ zone around the wildlife-rich archipelago

    Six decades ago, pioneering oceanographer and conservationist Sylvia Earle made a bittersweet discovery while diving off Chile’s oceanic islands with the US National Science Foundation vessel, the Anton Bruun. She found the remains of a baby fur seal, one of the world’s most isolated aquatic mammals.

    Endemic to the Juan Fernández archipelago, in the Pacific Ocean, and once prized for its fur and meat, the species, Arctocephalus philippii, was believed to have been hunted to extinction in the 19th century. But, Earle said: “A baby must have a mum and dad somewhere.”

    Pioneering oceanographer and conservationist Sylvia Earle. Photograph: Andy Mann/Blue Marine Foundation

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds

Copyright © 2026 Eco Hvar. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Orion Informatika.