The Belgium government has proposed a major cat sterilization program to spay/neuter all cats except exotic breeds within the next five years. The U.K. Guardian reports that if passed into the law, the phased sterilization program would begin next year along with a ban on using "corner ships, noticeboards and small ads to get rid of unwanted kitten litters.”
The cat population in Belgium, a country of 11 million, stands at 1.7 million, according to the Guardian. Daily culling of cats has resulted in some 13,000 killed in shelters, which represents one in three of the country’s strays.
The resulting proposed legislation called the Multi-annual Cat Plan 2011-2106 would initially require all cats in shelters to be sterilized. The next phase would require neutering of cats from breeders and sellers. In the final phase, all cat owners would be required to have their pets sterilized and registered. Breeders and owns of Siamese, Abyssinian and other special pedigrees would be exempt.
The Guardian reports that many are skeptical about the proposal - either because it won’t be easy to implement or because pet owners would refuse to do it. However, the animal welfare lobby is reported to be strongly supportive of the proposed legislation.
The Guardian says this is the first national compulsory sterilization effort and will be watched closely in other countries dealing with escalating cat populations. A cat can have one pregnancy every six moths resulting in as much as 36 kittens in less than 15 months, reports a director with Global Action in the Interest of Animals (GAIA), a Belgian animal rights group.
Comments
I'm absolutely opposed to any program proposing to sterilize ALL non purebred cats as an unwarrented and dangerous attack on nature and biodiversity!
Ms. Kohn, thanks for covering this story!
Mandatory spay/neuter might not be the best solution but it certainly does help reduce suffering. Countless millions of unwanted cats and dogs around the world endure neglect, abuse and horrific deaths (or euthanasia in shelters if they're lucky). Anything that helps lower the number of unwanted animals born is big positive step.
However I agree with Dr. Turner's comment above that it seems unfair to exempt 'exotic' breeds and other purebreds as described in the article. Why are they more worthy of breeding than other kitties?
Probably the government just had to include that exemption to pacify breeders, who, if they're anything like the powerful breeder lobby in the U.S., must be making quite a ruckus about this proposed legislation... while at the same time doing little or nothing to solve the problem, and in fact exacerbating it by adding more and more kitties into the population.
We can only hope the Uk and other countries follow suit. Things are at crisis level in the UK and all of us rescues are full and not homing. Our local vets are contacting us as they are currently refusing to put down healthy cats that are brought to them by their owners but we are unable to help.
Mandatory neutering, microchipping and registration is the only humane way to go. Pest Control companies are already being used to remove feral colonies.
Tosh to Dennis Taylor of Zurich - there will always be cats that escape the net and it would be great to be able to concentrate on these if we had more room. I do however agree that pedigrees should not be exempt but large fees applied to breeders.
Any selling of kittens should be restricted to registered charities and those breeders that can afford a license and charities should be given some authority to be able to go in and confiscate.
If you've not worked in an animal rescue environment then do so for a few weeks and then decide....
I think it's wonderful that a country is thinking of taking on the massive task of tackling cat overpopulation. However basing who should be allowed to breed on whether a cat conforms to some list of points made up by some club of people, even if that cat is inbred and has the genetic problems found in many breeds, is stupid. We should be breeding towards genetic diversity. I'm a catsitter: it makes me angry when the Persian cat I'm currently looking after, who has constant problems with her coat, and eyes that get stuck shut with crusts from her weeping tear ducts (a problem due to breeding for flat faces) is considered a better breeding prospect and pet than my own longhaired moggy, who's happy, playful, affectionate, stunning and needs hardly any grooming. It would be much better to make the rule that any cat used for breeding must have a vet certificate that it's been screened for viruses (FIV, FelV etc) and for common genetic conditions. The cost of having this done would put off most casual breeders (and eliminate some pedigrees with problems...). I'd also allow a maximum number of litters per cat. Due to the numbers in each litter it only needs 1 in every 2 to 3 cats to have one litter to maintain population numbers and give maximum genetic diversity. Since not many would go to the expense of all the testing it would probably be possible to allow maybe a maximum of 2 litters per cat bred. I'd apply this to all cats, whether pedigree or not.
Pedigrees are not somehow better. Nor should the breeding of moggies be left to the inbred products of feral colonies and those who don't believe in neutering. Legislation should be used to move towards sensible breeding of genetically diverse and healthy cats, not to enthrone the myth of pedigrees being better.
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