Beloved Welties cats walking into death traps
Vanessa Morris, who takes care of and feeds a group of stray cats at Weltevreden Park Primary School, is heartbroken at finding two of her furry friends poisoned.
A group of stray cats that have found a new home on the premises of Weltevreden Park Primary School and have helped immensely in reducing the number of rodents in the area could be at risk of dying agonising deaths if the poisoning scourge continues.
A Weltevreden Park resident, Vanessa Morris, who also happens to be a guardian and feeder of the cats, was left terrified and heartbroken on Sunday, 2 September when she visited the school to feed her furry friends and found two of them dead due to poisoning.
“In the past two weeks, two of these beautiful and precious cats have met untimely deaths in the most horrific way possible because of aldicarb poisoning (also known as two-step),” Vanessa lamented. She also fears for four other cats which she last saw almost 10 days before the others were killed.
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This prompted an investigation by the SPCA and a warning from the Welridge Residents Association, criticising those behind the deaths of the cats and demanding that the ‘horrid and barbaric practice’ be stopped.
The feeding project for the cats was initiated in January 2016, according to Vanessa, after she observed a lot of cats scavenging in the dustbins during the December holidays in 2015. “The school was approached at the start of the new year in 2016 to see if they would allow us to try and get this under control. It was agreed that we could start with establishing a feeding programme and from there trap, sterilise, vaccinate against rabies and release the cats back to the school property,” she explained.
She clarified that the cats are not owned by the school. They have congregated at the property, possibly as a result of irresponsible non-sterilisation of domestic pets from surrounding homes or because people have simply moved out of the area, leaving their cats to fend for themselves.
“The trap-neuter-release programme was started with private financing – no school funding was used for this. All the cats were sterilised in June 2016, with a few being rehomed and the majority kept at the school,” she said.
She added that the programme went one step further in 2018, when the learners got involved by adopting a ‘class cat’ that they collected food for. In return, they were taught about responsible pet ownership.
However, this beautiful project could remain under threat if the poisoning crisis continues. “We are faced with an unbelievably tragic and threatening problem at the school – the poisoning of the cats in the one colony, which is the largest and most needed for the control of rats and disease,” she said.
She added that apart from the poison affecting the cats, which would renew the threat of rats and diseases, the poisoned cats will also endanger the school’s owl release programme, and the guinea fowls on the premises.
Vanessa was pleased to hear that the SPCA is following up on the matter and has met with neighbouring residents, as the cats easily jump walls from the school. “The NSPCA has opened a case and charges will be brought against the guilty party,” she said.
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