The Cats of Lanzarote, Canary Islands Part 1

Hi everyone,

Today I’ve got to pick up on an important topic… The poor stray cats of a small island called Lanzarote.

The island itself is part of the Canary Islands which is part of Spain and a popular holiday destination with many of the British and Continental European tourists due to the fact that the island is warm and dry (SUNSHINE) all year around!

For years the hotels and many restaurants kept cats in order to keep the vermin under control so many cats found a home in these places.

The island sounds like a dream come true right? Unfortunately it does have a dark side to it when it comes to the feral cat population…

Many of the cats on the island were and still are not neutered causing huge amount of kittens every year… We took a look at one of the feral cat colonies in a small village on the island and there alone we found hundreds of cats on a field living of the scraps that the nearby restaurant gave them. 🙁

These were the kittens that we spotted originally all of which looked stunning but if you looked closely you could tell that their health wasn’t in the best condition. 🙁

A lot of the feral cats seem to have some Siamese mixed into their gene pool and one could find many stunning, friendly cats that really should be re-homed to a forever home…

The most heart breaking thing was to see the little kittens. (What you can’t tell from the photos is that some of them had poor eye conditions… possibly infections)

But the mothers are hard at work to keep their kittens safe!

But where is it going to end? How many more cats will be born on this island that is seemingly already over-populated by stray cats?

This is there the work of charities such as our partner charity International Cat Care, they have a whole page on neutering advice and it would be great if everyone could share this.

Of course there are also local charities hard at work with their spay/neuter program to reduce the amount of unwanted kittens on the island. 9 Lives is run by a dedicated cat loving woman who has put her passion at the base of what she does.

And don’t forget if you live in Europe, go on holiday to Lanzarote it is possible to work with local charities and plane operators to help re-home these cats to your home in your own country!

Thanks,

Mark