Sterilization is caring and loving! Sterilizing companion and stray animals is an act of love and responsibility. We want to help uncontrolled colonies.
Sterilizing is caring and loving!
Sterilizing companion and stray animals is an act of love and responsibility. It not only helps control the animal population but also promotes animal health and well-being, preventing reproductive problems and abandonment. Furthermore, sterilization is considered a responsible practice that contributes to reducing overpopulation and improving the quality of life for animals.
The Sintra Cat Village Association receives daily requests for help with uncontrolled cat colonies. Although the kennel promotes the TNR (trap-neuter-return) program, it currently lacks the capacity to do more than it already does. Each association has 8 slots per month for the TNR program; needless to say, these are far too few slots to address all the requests for help we receive. We also have to carry out the captures responsibly; you can't simply catch, neuter, and return them. There's a process that no one sees; the cats have to be caught in time and allowed to recover after sterilization. All of this involves a great deal of logistics, time, patience, and dedication. With this fundraising campaign, we want to reach further and help more uncontrolled colonies and prevent feline overpopulation. Since we can't collect them all, at least we want the colonies to be controlled and healthy. Some of our colonies include:
On average, a cat can have 3 to 4 litters per year. If each litter produces 5 kittens, that's 20 kittens from just one cat, and after 6 months, the first litter may already be reproducing as well. What we want to avoid are situations like the ones we encounter countless times: kittens being born in the street. Here's an example of the many kittens we rescue.
These uncontrolled colonies are unhappy; they suffer from cold, hunger, disease, fierce fights occur, and they don't know how to defend themselves—it's a slow decline.
We won't be able to reach everywhere, but if we reach some, that will already be good, it will have been worthwhile. We're starting with a goal of 40 animals for this campaign. Each sterilized animal costs an average of €80 (sterilization, medication, litter, food, pâtés, among other things).
