Costa del Sol town to implement sterilisation system to control 125 cat colonies

Vélez-Málaga town hall on the eastern end of the Costa del Sol is to sign an agreement with the Official College of Veterinarians of Malaga with which it intends to apply the CERN or capture, sterilisation and return method to more than 125 cat colonies throughout the municipality.

The town hall already carries out the method but it says that its programme will be reinforced “in the coming days to control the populations of feral cats in the municipality with the signing of this agreement”. The agreement also allows for veterinary centres to be inspected and approved before forming part of the programme, which will also include vaccinating the animals against diseases including rabies.

According to the town hall there are more than 125 cat colonies identified in the municipality by the department for the environment and 30 volunteers who control 34 of the colonies. Each of the authorised volunteers will receive a card in accordance with the model of the municipal ordinance on the keeping of pets and potentially dangerous dogs and training from the Official College of Veterinary Surgeons.

The Official College of Veterinarians will be responsible for creating a section in the Andalusian animal identification register relating to cat colonies, checking that the veterinary clinics participating in the agreement have the appropriate resources; providing the town hall with a list of registered veterinary members and/or centres; to provide the necessary training to veterinary professionals, town hall staff, local police and volunteers and to supply the veterinary centres designated by the town hall with microchips for the identification of feral cats, dewormers anti-rabies vaccines and documentation for identification and registration free of charge.

The town hall has also highlighted that its campaign for the adoption of pets through a link on its website “is progressing well”. There are currently 27 dogs on its page and seven have been adopted since 2 October. The town hall is also looking for people to adopt ducks and geese from the town’s María Zambrano park. However, before it can do so it is looking for a legal formula to be able to adopt them and has called on visitors not to feed them with bread or worms as this can make them sick.