Ibiza trip Nov 2005

What do you think of when you hear somebody's going to Ibiza for a fortnight? They're off for a relaxing holiday with sun, sea, and endless partying? Well, for a small but dedicated band of volunteers it means something very different...

SNIP's trapper, Tan Ahmet, has been on several trips to Ibiza organised and funded by Angela Collins of the charity Care 4 Cats.

In cooperation with local charities they aim to neuter as many cats as possible during the 1 or 2 weeks of their stay. As you can see from the photos, there are large colonies of feral and stray cats in Ibiza and the other Balearic islands, and left unneutered the population quickly gets out of control.

Their visits do involve a lot of late nights, but they are spent setting traps, waiting patiently for the cats to go in then taking them to the vets to be neutered. They always try to get every cat in the colony, and often there will be that elusive one that takes days to catch.

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The latest trip was in November 2005, a 2-week stay during which an amazing 570 cats were trapped and neutered. This is a selection of pictures taken during this trip.

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If you want them to go into the trap,

don't leave a bag of

food lying around!

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That's better...

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The cats are given a few hours to recuperate (longer for females), then returned to their site.

As Care 4 Cats becomes more widely known on the island, more and more people contact them asking for help with colonies they are feeding.

For more information, see this report on a previous trip in 2004 on the website of the Worldwide Veterinary Service - a WVS nurse helped Care 4 Cats on that trip http://www.wvs.org.uk/article.php?cmsid=16.

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