A kitten was rescued from the trunk of a tree thanks to alert school children
The setting is perhaps reminiscent of an adventure of Alice in Wonderland, but the tiny kitten that was trapped within the hollow tree trunk, was smiling again like the Cheshire Cat only after it was rescued thanks to the alertness of school children.
The incident occurred on one of the last days of classes at the Dalet public school on Weizmann Street in Tel Aviv. Pupils, who were sitting on a bench in the school yard, heard the howling of a cat and began to search for its source, since they thought that the cat was stuck up a tree. After searching, the children knew that the kitten was trapped inside the hollow trunk of a tree, but they were unable to rescue it.
The school children contacted the fire department and the municipal hotline of Tel Aviv, but the answer that they received was that these units go out on rescue missions only in the event of a life or death emergency. The school children did not give up, but telephoned the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel. Skilled representatives of the Society set out immediately for the location, and within minutes they succeeded in freeing the kitten and bringing it to the facilities of the Society. The kitten was exhausted from its attempts to climb the inner wall of the tree trunk, but after it received special food it recovered quickly.
The kitten, a two and a half month old calico, which was given the name Alma, is very friendly and is now awaiting a warm home. Anyone interested in additional details is asked to come to the Society or call: *4553.
We wish to thank the school children who did everything possible in order to help the kitten. Together with the joy over the rescue of the kitten, we are very sad about the total apathy shown by the municipality and the rescue forces – forces that are supposed to take action towards this goal on the basis of their positions and their authority.
Trains Stopped – Kitten Rescued
All trains were stopped and a representative of the Society rescued a kitten from the danger of being run over
The birthing season, during which thousands of kittens are born in the streets, is felt very strongly at the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel. Many citizens who encounter kittens in distress contact us and ask for our assistance in rescuing them. Thus, in recent weeks we rescued cats from busy streets, wells, hollow tree trunks and other strange places.
Yesterday the offices of the Society received a telephone call from a passenger on the Israel Railway who wanted to warn us about a kitten on the train tracks of the busiest train station in Israel, the Shalom Station in Tel Aviv. As soon as the call was received a representative of the Society was dispatched to the train station in order to rescue the kitten, and at the same time the spokeswoman for the Society contacted the offices of the railway management and asked them to stop all train movements.
All the trains were stopped for a number of minutes while a railway worker tried to catch the kitten, with all the travelers looking on, but without success. The trains began to run again, but luckily the kitten was not run over. The Society’s representative got to the railway station a few minutes later, the trains were stopped again, and the representative succeeded in catching the kitten quickly, to the cheers of the crowds of passengers at the station.
The two month old female kitten was brought into the Society’s veterinary clinic to be examined and was found to be healthy and especially friendly. In another month it will be a candidate for adoption, and anyone interested in adopting it is invited to contact the Society to receive further information.
A kitten rescued from certain death
Representatives of the Society saved a kitten from being run over on the North Ayalon road
Last week, while representatives of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel were travelling towards the Society on the North Ayalon road, they took note of two vehicles that had stopped on the shoulder. Their first thought was that there had been an accident, but suddenly the representatives observed that the drivers of the vehicles were trying to catch a kitten.
Without hesitation, the representatives immediately pulled the Society’s vehicle off to the side of the road and got out in order to catch the kitten. The drivers who had stopped had not succeeded in catching the kitten because they were worried about being scratched. However, the representatives of the Society, who are proficient at rescuing cats, caught the kitten in less than a minute and rescued it from the definite likelihood of being run over, since we are talking about one of the busiest roads in the country.
The two month old female kitten was examined by the Society’s veterinarians. Its health is good and in about another month it will be ready to be put up for adoption, after it undergoes neutering.
In recent weeks, in the wake of the cat propagation season, the Society has received many calls from citizens who ask for our help in rescuing kittens in unconventional places. Luckily, in this case, the representatives of the Society were in the right place at the right time, and thus saved the life of this kitten.
It is important to note that the lives of street cats are full of suffering and hardship and they are exposed to many dangers, among them illnesses, harsh climate, abuse, hunger, dehydration and of course as in this instance – road accidents. Kittens are the primary sufferers, and most of them do not survive a full year. Many people see street cats as a normal phenomenon, but their place is not in the street. For comparison, a cat that grows up in a home can live for 15 to 20 years, while the estimate for the life expectancy of a street cat is only three years. The Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel is working to encourage the neutering of street cats in order to reduce their suffering, and is even carrying out these procedures at its veterinary clinic for low fees. According to estimates, there are more than two million street cats in Israel, and we have been imploring the government and the ministries responsible for this topic, again and again, to work for a solution to this problem and thus to make it easier for the unfortunate cats.
On the Miracles and on the Wonders
During the holiday of Chanukah 30 cats from the yard of a resident of the Florentine neighborhood were neutered and castrated at the clinic of the Society
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.
A well at the end of the tunnel
A rescue campaign for saving a cat that fell into a sewage pit was crowned a success
The street cats that are in a daily battle with their ordained urban abode have to deal with an additional danger when the municipal authorities do not provide a quick solution to sanitation and security problems.
Two weeks after a resident of Rishon Le Zion heard the cries of a kitten coming from an open sewage pit, in the Ben Gurion Center, the staff of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel, rescued the kitten from the hole and saved its life. The story happened two weeks ago when a female resident of Rishon Le Zion was walking her dog on the streets of the city and all of a sudden heard a quiet meow. By tracking the source of the meowing she was brought to an open sewage hole. A little kitten had fallen into the hole and it had no way out.
The woman called the emergency service at the Society and a rescue group from the Society arrived there to rescue the kitten from the hole. The rescue mission was difficult since the kitten was frightened and at first did not respond to the rescue attempts. For two weeks the rescue team of the Society came to the area and gave the kitten food and water so that it would not die of starvation or dehydration and also to eventually gain its trust. After this the team succeeded in rescuing the cat by way of a lure and they brought it for treatment at the Society’s clinic.
The Society’s veterinarian, Dr. Sharon Goldstein, treated the cat, which arrived infected and filthy. She cleaned it up and treated it for worms and parasites, and after a few days in which it received lots of attention and love from the attending staff the cat recovered. This week the cat was adopted by Roslan Krimov.
We want to thank the resident of Rishon Le Zion for her awareness, and we are requesting that the municipal authorities deal with the security and sanitary problems of this sort so that similar cases as this do not reoccur.
A cat in a hot tin car
A cat’s life was saved after he was trapped at noon in a locked vehicle
The life of a spotted ginger cat was saved two weeks ago after it was trapped within a vehicle in the burning noon heat. This happened on Kishon Street in the Florentine neighborhood in Tel Aviv, when passersby noticed a cat breathing with difficulty and trying to fight for its life in the hot trap within the vehicle. Those present, who crowded around the vehicle which was a Toyota, called the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel and at the same time one of them succeeded in breaking into the vehicle without causing damage.
The Society’s patrol arrived at the place and took the cat, which had fainted, and brought it to the clinic where the veterinarians saved its life. “The cat came in completely dehydrated and almost unconscious”, Dr Ayah Peri, the veterinarian of the Society diagnosed. “He received a transfusion of liquids into a vein immediately and now he is healthy and waiting with anticipation for people to come and adopt him”.
After the rescue the Society’s patrol filed a complaint with the police against the owner of the vehicle about neglecting the cat and about a crime according to the law of causing pain to animals. The owner of the vehicle contended in front of the police that the cat was not his and he had no idea how it was found trapped in the vehicle.
We want to praise those present at the site who were aware of the situation of the trapped cat and who telephoned to bring help.
The cat was adopted last week and we wish it and its new family a year of love filled with good moments.
Nine Lives, really?
Varies bodies in Israel and the world tried to deal with the problem of street cats in various ways
Dr. Deganit Ben Dov
Cats – furry creatures, smooth, striped and spotted, black, white and ginger. Among all those fur covered creatures, cats are the most fun to pet. In the last few years the number of people deciding to raise cats in their homes as pets, and accordingly, the interest that researchers are showing in the place of the cat in human society, has also grown. Many professional articles are dealing with the contribution of the cat to the health of its owners – lowering of blood pressure, improving moods and mental health and even curing cancer.
Some History The cat was domesticated in ancient Egypt about 5,000 years ago. Cats were raised in homes and in granaries in order to guard them against rodents and snakes. They were considered holy god-lings and anyone who killed a cat was sentenced to death. In the area of China, more than 3,000 years ago, a long haired cat was domesticated, and this cat was the one that contributed long hair genes to the cats of our time. Cats came to Italy from Egypt with Phoenician merchants who raised them on their ships. In the first centuries of the common era, cats spread out from Italy to the rest of the countries of Europe, where they were kept as pets and as rodent killers, and even performed a function in various religions. In the Middle Ages cats were considered as part of the power of the black devil and many of them were killed and burnt as agents of the devil. In the 18th and 19th centuries the status of the cat started to rise and improve, and today there are tens of millions of cats in homes throughout the world.
The House Cat and the Street Cat The number of house cats rises from year to year. In Europe there are 40 million pet cats and in the United States more than 60 million. The number of house cats in Israel is estimated as about 200,000. Domestication created dependence of the cat upon people and a potential for high fertility, a problematic combination since the number of house cats that are born today is much higher than the number of people who are interested in caring for them.
Parallel to the rise in popularity of cats as well-cared-for pets, there is a rise in the number of abandoned cats and in street cats. Most of the house cats who end up on the street do not survive very long. In a suitable place where there is easy prey and few competitors, the feral cats endanger the birds and the reptiles even to the extent of danger of extermination.
An adult female cat can have kittens twice a year, four kittens each time. Ninety percent of the kittens of street cats die before their first year. The cat that lasts a year is expected to live another two or three years only, in contrast to the house cat who can reach old age at 15 to 20 years. The street cats are likely to have a life of hunger, vulnerability to different illnesses and injuries from vehicle and humans.
In a research project that was conducted in England it was found that one in five cats that were examined were in a bad physical state from injuries and respiratory illnesses. The cats tended to show signs of illness, and that is one of the reasons for the belief that cats have nine lives: the cat is injured but does not appear injured. A cat such as this living on the street, “will look thin but healthy, until the stage where his body will not be able function and the cat will collapse”.
The Street Cat in Israel It is not clear how many street cats there are in Israel. If we accept the evaluation that the number of street cats is ten times larger than the number of house cats then we are talking about two million cats. Varies bodies in Israel and the world tried to deal with the problem of street cats in various ways. There are two extreme approaches to the problem of street cats, and as in many cases there is no one truth, and the best way is a combination of the different approaches.
One approach is based on the idea that the cat is a house pet. The cat needs a human to take care of him, and is not expecting a life of suffering. Therefore we should catch any cat not being cared for and kill it as humanely as possible in order to prevent it having a life of suffering. The opposite approach is based on the idea that the cat is a living and beloved being, even if it has no owner. Since most of the suffering of street cats is connected with reproduction, the supporters of this approach believe in neutering all street cats, and in time this will reduce their reproduction until the problem will be solved.
The reality is of course much more complex and complicated, Many districts tried to exterminate the population of street cats, without success. The cats continue to reproduce. On one hand the programs of catching and neutering street cats is expensive and demands coordinated effort on the part of many factors. Sometimes it is enough that one person objects to this program to cause the cats to be injured and to suffer. In many cases cat lovers are convinced that neutering street cats is the correct way, but they are not willing to contribute and invest in it, and expect that other factors (district authorities and cat welfare agencies) will take care of the problem. The solution must include the neutering and castration of house cats in order to reduce as much as possible the number of abandoned cats. The neutering and castration of the cats living in the street are suitable ways only for the populations of street cats who are fed by people who can do follow ups, to care for them when they are injured and to neuter new cats who join the group. Today this way is suitable to a small part of the populations of street cats. A program of education and explanation will enable the implementation of programs of neutering of street cats.
But in the meantime, hundreds of thousands of cats are suffering and dying in the streets. However, we can not educate people to be humane and to take public responsibility, while at the same time we are closing our eyes to the suffering of the street cats. A desire for a better and more humane solution does not have to contradict the desire to prevent suffering now. The euthanizing of abandoned cats is not a good solution, but the lesser evil. In cases where we cannot give good lives to animals, we can at least act with humanity and shorten their suffering.
* This article was written by Dr. Deganit Ben Dov in honor of the big cat event “Tel-Aviv says Meow”, May 2001 at the Cinamateque in Tel-Aviv and published in the newspaper “The Nature of Things”.
