Wendy WilliamsA BRITISH pensioner has been taken to court in a bid to save a dozen stray cats she has been caring for.
Retired school teacher Valerie June Strahinja, 68, is being sued over her care of the street cats for the past two years.
Working with local charity ADANA, she has even had many of them sterilized at a great cost to herself.
But the animal lover, who has lived in Estepona for 15 years, has faced opposition from other residents in the Ronda en el Mar urbanization, who have repeatedly reported the cats to the authorities.
In the latest clash she has been forced to hide the animals after the local authorities sent in an agency to kill them.
“It is a horror story,” said Strahinja. “They were going to take them away even though they have been sterilized. It didn’t stop them killing the last remaining cat who I found this weekend next to a bag of rat poison. The animal was in severe and terrible pain and although I took it immediately to the vet, the young cat couldn’t be saved and died a horrible death.”
Sterilizing them doesn’t stop them defecating everywhere though does it?
At least cats dig a hole and bury it….Not like Dogs…and I have noticed lately in the Campo there are more and more stray dogs going around the bins.
The reason for the relentless increase in the population of stray animals is the fault of the Spanish people.
The Spanish need to start to obey they own laws concerning animal welfare. They also need to stop the hypocrisy about neutering – the excuse we hear from Campo folk is that neutering is “unnatural” and “against God’s will”
In a Catholic country which has one of the lowest birth rates (of indigenous people)in the world, this is something of a cop out.
Good on you Valerie, you need every support you can get, not facetious comments from obvious cat haters. We have always had cats, our last two died over here aged 20 and 22 years from a happy old age. Since then we have “adopted” 3 abandoned campo cats (Somebody obviously thought they were cute as kittens then dumped them).
Steve: you are right there are more strays because they are being abandoned by people who cannot afford them, apparently this is also going on in the UK too, so you cannot be too harsh on the Spanish who have never been as sentimental as UK folks about their animals. Sadly we take them all in and try to rehome them, being too soft hearted.
Take heart, one of our Spanish friends is a farmer, quite a tough character, but loves animals which is so refreshing. In fact he has just spent 1000 euros on one of his dogs who suffered a broken leg. I truly believe that there are some good hearted Spanish folk out there who love their animals. Against that there are some b—stards who don´t, they are the ones who should be taken to task….
Hi Catwoman
Nice to hear about your farmer who paid out for his dog…..but this should be the norm if you take on an animal, surely? I’d have more respect for these hunters if they had their old/sick dogs put to sleep – rather than abandon them near my house so I have to take them to the vet and pay the fee, as there’s no room in any of the shelters anymore
Incidentally, most Spanish “shelters” are disgusting (there are a couple of notable exceptions obviously) compared to the non Spanish run shelters in Spain
These people should be ashamed – instead, they seem to laugh at us for being “soft” where animals are concerned
Sarah, we took two pups to a shelter in the Sierra Nevada run by an Englishman, which, although well intentioned, was a horrendous place. He kept many (quite dangerous) dogs running wild who would have been impossible to adopt and would sadly have been better put to sleep. The conditions were filthy. Needless to say, next day we brought the pups back and have them still, 3 years later and they have made gorgeous dogs. From your comments you sound like us, taking pity on poor abandoned animals and getting lumbered with vet fees, etc. I totally agree that a lot of Spanish people are in need of education about the welfare of animals. If we are “soft” about animals then that is to their detriment and something we should be proud of.
I hate cats and dogs!!!
Barry, what a pointless post, but I guess it’s your opinion and you’re entitled to it…
Hi Suzannah – yes you’re right, many English out here are running questionable “shelters” – there’s one who only takes puppies, has regular outbreaks of Parvo etc because they lack the funds to vaccinate or keep proper quarantine protocol
They then hand over these sick pups free of charge to complete strangers at markets and car boots etc…..it’s hardly going to break the cycle of abandoned pregnant animals is it?
We do what we can (as you obviously do) but there’s still loads of dogs that I’ve been unable to help, due to lack of space and funds, which is heartbreaking.
Barrys’ is a pointless post? What about the rest of them? “Me me me, I’m wonderful and so caring, more me me me, cats are great, I’m such an authority on cats, no-one else knows as much as me me me about cats, more me, cats are great.”
They are disgusting. They are instinctive insects covered in fur.
They spread germs and bacteria everywhere, they crap at any opportunity anywhere they can and spray those places they can’t. If I go to the toilet on your front doorstep I’m insane, if you let your cat do it on mine well it’s just being a cat and hardly your fault.
Ben, I appreciate you don’t like cats, but they don’t actually spread nearly as much germs as us humans
Human waste is dangerous to us humans, which is why I object to my Spanish neighbours having a cr*p near my house (especially when they have bathrooms but don’t want to pay for their pozos to be emptied)
A child in our neighbourhood recently ended up in hospital with a severe gastro-intestinal infection – the doctor said it was caused by the child playing on ground where there was human waste – Sanidad came and did soil samples
Unless you are pregnant/or actively pick up dog/cat dirt and then put your fingers in your mouth without giving them a good wash first, then cat/doggy doo is
…..no risk to one’s health