Animal Welfare in San Bartolomé de Tirajana has already sterilized 1.500 cats

 

The Animal Welfare department of the Department of Health of the San Bartolomé de Tirajana City Council has promoted the sterilization and microchipping of 2024 cats from the 253 feline colonies spread throughout the municipality during 141. “There are about 130 more specimens than the previous year, and our objective is to carry out another 400 interventions during 2025, 200 of them with municipal resources and the other 200 through campaigns by the Cabildo and the Official College of Veterinarians,” reported the eighth deputy mayor Araceli Armas Cruz during the day “Feline colonies: Responsible management, Population control and Social coexistence” held at the Carmelo Pérez Rodríguez Cultural Center, in El Tablero. "In total, of the approximately 2.600 specimens that form part of the registered colonies, around 1.500 have already been sterilised, which represents just over 50%," said the councillor.

 

 

The event was organised by the Department of Health with the aim of continuing to train volunteers who look after the feline colonies, “an altruistic task with a high dose of commitment and responsibility” which was appreciated by Araceli Armas and by the mayor Marcos Aurelio Pérez Sánchez himself, who focused their interventions on the efforts of the City Council to comply with the new Animal Welfare Law and the control and management programme for the colonies.

 

“This day is an opportunity to thank and acknowledge the work carried out by volunteers. I ask them to maintain their commitment and count on the administration. Together we will take care of animal welfare and good social coexistence,” said the Councillor for Health, informing them about the forecast of €128.000 for the next year to be used for the purchase of 47000 kilos of feed, the chipping and sterilisation of cats, the veterinary control of the colonies and the necessary reports on them. “The City Council works permanently in this area to comply with current regulatory legislation,” she added.

 

The day began with the presentation of the municipal map of the location of the cat colonies under guardianship, and included two round tables with the participation of two veterinarians, a veterinarian-lawyer, a veterinarian-ethologist and a sociologist. The first one focused on the role of cat colonies in the urban ecosystem and the benefits of their responsible management; the work of volunteers as necessary collaborators of the administration and the difficulties they encounter in their performance; and finally on the technical guidelines and the manual of good practices for food control, cleaning the environment and adoptions. The preventive use of sterilization as an essential measure of demographic control of the colonies and the minimization of their impact on the environment was also discussed. The second table focused on the differences between colonies on public land and on private land of farms, communities and hotels, and on the resolution of conflicts and problems of social coexistence with the colonies.

 

The councillor responsible for animal welfare of the Mogán Town Council, Rayco Guerra, and the veterinarian of the CETA of Santa Lucía de Tirajana, Minerva Artiles, also took part in the event, presenting the experiences of managing the colonies in their respective municipalities. The Department of Health gave the managers of the feline colonies an identification vest at the end of the event.