Yaakov Yaakovi, a pensioner from the Florentine neighborhood in Tel Aviv, did not expect this miracle. During the holiday of Chanukah, the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel, took care to neuter and castrate the 30 cats that Yaakovi is raising, and so to improve their quality of life and to lengthen their days.
For decades Yaakovi has been caring for the cats that live in his neighborhood, and about 30 cats come to the yard of his building as regulars. Over the years the Society has helped Yaakovi by providing treatment to the cats, and more than once by supplying them with food, since Yaakovi has difficulty in paying for the great expenses that are involved.
In the past week a representative of the Society went to Yaakovi’s home and caught the cats. He brought them to the clinic of the Society, and after they had recovered from the important operations of neutering and castration, he returned them to their familiar territory. All this was done without any payment and as a gesture for the actions of Yaakovi, who does as much as he can to care for the cats in his neighborhood, to help them and to give them love and warmth. This initiative is part and parcel of the activities of the Society to help to decrease the suffering of the homeless cats. For over a year the Society has had a special campaign to neuter and castrate cats, in the framework of which we are performing those operations for subsidized prices.
We who deal with the welfare of animals are coping on a daily basis with the over population of homeless animals, the problem whose origin stems from ourselves, the humans. The proper place for cats is not in the streets, but since we the humans have domesticated them, we are responsible for them, and we need to cope realistically with the damage that was done to their ability to survive as a result of this domestication. Unfortunately, most of the wandering and homeless animals do not die of old age. The reproductive rate of cats that live in the street is very high; a female cat that is not neutered is the source, within five years, of more than 25,000 cats, and in the street there are no happy cats. Their fate includes exposure to the sun and to cold, starvation, deadly infectious diseases, injuries and fractures as a result of road accidents or in fights with other animals, abuse by cruel humans, poisons and others. Even small cuts and light invasive wounds could lead to death with suffering without proper medical care.
The feeding of groups of street cats by good people, rare as it is, is not enough. In order that they should live in peace and honor by our side we have to fulfill two important conditions: being careful that their feeding stations are kept clean and caring for their health by vaccinations, neutering and castration.
In order to limit the uncontrolled reproduction of the cats and the suffering that is their lot, we castrate a male cat for 60 NIS and we neuter a female cat for 80 NIS. In this way, the birth of kittens that are fated for a life of suffering, dangers and tortures in the street is prevented.
If you are also aware of the suffering of the cats that are living near you homes, if you feed cats and care for them, please join in the campaign for neutering and castration by the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel. Neuter and castrate the street cats, and so improve their quality of life, lengthen their lives and even make your neighbors happy by reducing the occurrence of estrus howling and cat fights.
Similarly, you can help us by subsidizing these operations by means of a special contribution, which we will use for this purpose only. In this way we can help additional people, such as Yaakovi, who care for many cats but for economic reasons cannot bear the low costs for the neutering and castration operations.
