COLOMBO MUNICIPAL COUNCIL TO CONDUCT FELINE CENSUS
The Colombo Municipality is set to conduct a feline census next year in a bid to control the fast growing stray cat population in the city.
Coincidentally, last month the Presidential Secretariat directed the Colombo Municipality to remove the large number of stray cats that had invaded the President’s House which had remained unoccupied for the past three years.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror Municipal Chief Veterinarian Dr. I. V. P. Dharmawardena said the strays were still occupying the President’s House.
“The Presidential Secretariat agreed to leave the cats as they are as we could not find a shelter to relocate them. However, they did request to send a team of surgeons to sterilize the strays and control their population,” Dr. Dharmawardena said.
The Chief Veterinary Surgeon went on to say that the number of complaints received about cats had increased in the recent past and while they were not violent, residents complained about missing food and other nuisances caused by the felines.
“We have not conducted a census or taken measures to sterilize them before, but with the prevailing situation we have to begin sterilizing stray cats and we will begin the process soon after the census is completed,” he said adding that stray dogs in the city had been sterilized and vaccinated, apart from a few at the Colombo Port.
The number of felines in the city had increased in part due to the wave of eateries and restaurants that had mushroomed in the city who fed these strays daily, while many individuals now dumped stray kittens within the city limits mostly in the Peliyagoda, Kirulapone, Wellawatta and Mattakkuliya areas, the officials said.
“Residents have mostly complained about missing food,” the veterinarian concluded.
The number of felines in the city had increased in part due to the wave of eateries and restaurants that had mushroomed in the city who fed these strays daily, while many individuals now dumped stray kittens within the city limits mostly in the Peliyagoda, Kirulapone, Wellawatta and Mattakkuliya areas