White-van men from AFCD are trapping village cats and taking them to their deaths

Volunteers like Emily Pereira and Debbie Chow battle hopelessly and expensively to keep the animals safe

1 February 2015 rmedcalf ANIMAL WELFARE, PETS & WILDLIFE 0

The white-van men from AFCD are raiding Sai Kung villages after complaints, trapping cats and taking them to their deaths, Emily Pereira, a registered carer, said. If the cats caught are not microchipped and no one claims them they will be killed in four days. AFCD vets, some of whom hate their work, give the cats lethal injections.

Emily looks after the cat colony in Tan Cheung village. “I have had the same two cats from my colony trapped by the AFCD three times in one month.” In these cases the cats were carted in cages to the department’s Kowloon depot where their microchips were detected. They were then shipped in cages to the SPCA which contacted Emily, who picked them up and took them home in taxis. whitevanmen

Cats who go through this stress lose weight and become sickly. One got cat flu and was cured by a vet. “All this at considerable expense. I can’t understand why the AFCD men can’t take a scanner with them to check the cats before removing them,” Emily said. She started Sai Kung Cats in August. Her neighbours in Tan Cheung had been feeding feral cats for years and still do. “But when they came across kittens they didn’t know what to do, ” Emily said, so I stepped in.”

Emily registered with SPCA under their Cat Colony Care Programme and is now Tan Cheung representative. She was given “a friendly trap” so she can catch the animals and take them for neutering and microchipping. Ears are clipped to show the cats are desexed. Emily warns that domestic cats can be trapped by white-van men. If they are not microchipped and go unclaimed they will be killed in four days. “Imagine if a family has gone on holiday leaving pets to wander in and out through cat flaps…”

Another carer working closely with Emily is Debbie Chow. She’s registered with CCCP too and runs a volunteer group called Home Dog Home. “AFCD are aiming to help animals, including cats,” Emily said, “but this method isn’t working.”

More volunteers are needed to run CCCP programmes, getting the cats neutered, microchipped and homed. “With enough volunteers AFCD will not need to step in at all.”

If you want to help… hongkongcats@gmail.com or homedoghome@gmail.com or www.hongkongcats.org