DHAHRAN: In the hidden compound of Al-Mutlaq, situated on the main road in the center of Dammam, Alkhobar and Dhahran, there is a community of cat charmers who save as many cats as they can.
Some local residents view the residents of the complex as the saviors of many unwanted cats in the area. The problem started in 2016 when it started raining cats and, well, cats. The area was overrun by stray dogs that had wandered in, had screaming matches and fur flying, and seemingly terrorized any and all human nightwalkers they encountered.
With the population increasing, word quickly spread in the neighborhood that the residents of the complex would take in and care for these stray dogs. This resulted in many residents of nearby neighborhoods leaving unwanted kittens near their front doors and leaving.
These kitties would wander through the gate, past the friendly security guards, and make themselves at home. A group of concerned residents noticed the overcrowding and decided to raise money to vaccinate and neuter these furry animal friends.
TALLLIGHTS
• The ‘Trap, Neuter and Return’ group consists of Sally Brown, Jawahir ‘Juju’ Islam, Rekha Nair, Laura Masoni and Sanaa Tarneem Mohammed. ‘We started this group’s TNR program in 2016; that’s when the problem was overwhelming. We always had cats in the complex, workers fed them, families fed them, but over a period of time, we saw a sudden increase in cats,” Mohammed said.
• It costs about SR300 ($79) for each TNR process, so they turned to Sally Brown for help. She had lived in Riyadh and on the west coast and brought a wealth of information as a doctor and how to raise funds to help these cats.
• Laura Masoni is responsible for the ‘dirty work’ of mopping with her 10-year-old daughter. They lure the cat with a small bowl of food around 10 p.m. and check the trap at 6:30 a.m. All those caught are announced on the social media group and are then taken to the Advanced Pet Clinic. They have to wrap the animals in towels so they don’t scratch their arms.
The group, mostly expatriates, are the unofficial custodians of the Al-Mutlaq community’s “Catch, Castrate and Return” group, known as TNR. For these stray dogs, TNR is the best option, according to members of the Al-Mutlaq community, because it allows these cats to be sterilized and returned to their outdoor “homes”. This helps monitor the health of the general population and prevent the spread of disease.
When a cat has a “pointed ear,” it is the universally accepted method of identifying a spayed, neutered, and vaccinated feral cat. It means that a professional veterinarian removed a bit from the tip of the ear to indicate that the cat is healthy and has been checked.
The group consists of Sally Brown, Jawahir ‘Juju’ Islam, Rekha Nair, Laura Masoni and Sanaa Tarneem Mohammed. “We started this group’s TNR program in 2016; that’s when the problem was overwhelming. We always had cats in the compound, workers fed them, families fed them, but over a period of time, we saw a sudden increase in cats,” Mohammed told Arab News.
“And the breeding cycles are pretty close, so they’re only four and a half months old and then…they come into heat, so we’ll see female cats everywhere, producing and breeding kittens one after the other. We found that people were leaving, literally at the gate of the complex, so we would have all these stray and abandoned cats coming in, trying to mark their territory and encroaching on the cats that were already there. And that led to a lot of fights and friction.
We want them to be healthier. We want them to be able to survive in the wild because let’s face it, not all of us can allow cats to come and stay with us. If you attend to some of their wants and needs like vaccinating, spaying and neutering them, they are happier. They are well fed. They live longer.
Sanaa Tarneem Mohamed
“My children couldn’t sleep because of the noise. We decided the problem was pressing enough for us to take a look at it. Most of us are expats and we got together and decided now we have to take a look at this,” she said.
Before then, and sadly in many parts of the country, people would trap stray cats and kittens and dump them in the desert, simply abandoning them or poisoning their food.
“We decided no, we couldn’t take that. So we met with the management of the complex, with the owners and the manager of the complex, and we signed an agreement, saying that (we would take) the property and the responsibility of starting a group that would be in charge of trapping, neutering or spaying cats. and release them in the same place where we found them, to stabilize the population,” Mohammed said.
“So we did that. And then we come together again and raise funds as a community. Of course, some of us disagreed with the castration and spay part because they think it’s not Islamic and we are in a Muslim country. But I’ve been doing my own personal research on it. The hadith that I have read is that if it is (to) improve the cat’s health, then neutering and spaying is fine, right? Because ultimately, we’re not taking away… parenthood from them, we want them to live a better life.
“We want them to be healthier. We want them to be able to survive in the wild because let’s face it, not all of us can allow cats to come and stay with us. If you attend to some of their wants and needs like vaccinating, spaying and neutering them, they are happier. They are well fed. They live longer,” Mohammed said.
It costs around SR300 ($79) for each TNR process, so they turned to Sally Brown for help. She had lived in Riyadh and on the west coast and brought a wealth of information as a doctor and how to raise funds to help these cats.
“I have lived in the Kingdom for about 20 years, I lived in this complex for 11 years. I first got involved with TNR cats in Riyadh at the National Guard Medical City due to being overrun with cats. It was not a very difficult operation to carry out because there were thousands of people living there. So we could work in groups.
Brown said that in Jeddah, in Rabigh, it was not difficult to do this either because there was a large group of people who were able to help. The Al-Mutlaq complex, on the other hand, is small.
“Then together with my friends we started this group, we became aware of the fact that we were being outnumbered during kitten season. It was not uncommon to find a cat lying on the green when it was one day old, they would have to take it in and clean it up or they would die.
“The mothers left them because they couldn’t handle them. So we got together and thought about putting together a group. The first thing I did when we installed it was to contact the Advanced Pet Clinic that just opened here in Alkhobar.”
He contacted the owner of the APC, who agreed to offer them a 50 percent discount on all purchases. Resources have been used for sick and injured cats. However, Brown admitted that fundraising has been difficult and residents of the complex have been asked to “sponsor a cat” with cash. Other fundraising efforts have included holding events, such as handmade and baked goods sales, with the help of children and spouses.
“The way we raise money is something of an ongoing battle, but we always make it somehow. The most important thing is also that, over the years, we have really stabilized the population here. The place was swarming with feral cats at night,” Brown said.
Rekha Nair, who became part of the TNR group two years ago, said a WhatsApp group was created to share information and concerns. “I go around the enclosure taking photos of cats and then I name them. So whenever we take a picture of a cat that we know is leaning, that cat is already fixed, so we don’t have to worry about that one or take it to the vet. We share the photo on the WhatsApp group, that way we know where they are hanging out and we can set the trap there,” Nair told Arab News.
Laura Masoni is responsible for the “dirty work” of mopping with her 10-year-old daughter. They lure the cat with a small bowl of food around 10 p.m. and check the trap at 6:30 a.m. All those caught are announced on the social media group and then brought to the APC. They have to wrap the animals in towels so they don’t scratch their arms.
“We have three traps, one cat at a time. They are like big cages, we put some food inside. I do it almost every night because I used to work in the enclosure to feed the cats and if there are some new cats that need to be fixed we share the picture with their location and say ‘yeah then it needs to be done. ‘
“And this is how, so far, we have been able to fix more than 50 cats since 2016. This year, we did about 20. When Juju (Jawahir Islam) was here, he used to set two or three cat traps every night. the compound. So we were able to catch three cats at once. And she (had) her driver … take them to the APC, which was helpful,” Masoni told Arab News.
“People can donate directly to APC, if they want, or they can donate to one of our houses. We tell it all. Keep track of all the money, that’s how it works,” Brown said.
Source: news.google.com