Minister could become 'Top Cat' by dealing with ferals

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31: Do you remember Top Cat? I hope Minister Walter Roban, JP, MP, and Minister of the Environment, Planning and Infrastructure Strategy, does.

Top Cat, or TC as he was affectionately called, was the indisputable leader of the gang. He was the boss, the pip, and the championship. He was the most tip top, Top Cat.

But Top Cat was a great, great cartoon series in the 60s with TC, Benny the Ball, Brain, Fancy, Choo Choo and Officer Dibble. All the cats lived ferally in garbage cans in an alley.

I watched it every afternoon as a kid and as a result grew to actually like cats. My wife and I have two at home — two six-toed calicoes named Squeak and Mouse.

Every now and then on the show, TC or Fancy or Choo Choo, found a feral female friend. Because it was a kid’s cartoon and taste dictated the story lines, we dont know if there ever was a tiny TC born.

What we do know is that in real life, feral un-neutered cats do have babies — lots of them. And Bermuda has — by reasonable estimate — about 10,000 feral cats scavenging for food, friends and family on the island.

If not spayed, this number will increase so quickly that within three years there will be more wild cats on Bermuda than humans. And that includes the tourist season! Think on that for a moment.

Now, read this edict that appears on the website of the SPCA here in Bermuda: “With puppies and kittens, a new owner must agree to have the animal spayed or neutered as early as possible (usually four months for kittens and six months for dogs).

The office administrator at the SPCA will make the appointment with the veterinary hospital of the new owner’s choice and a follow up is done to ensure the appointment has been kept.

The SPCA, it must be said, is a non-profit organization which relies heavily on the generosity of the public for support through memberships, donations and bequests — a situation in itself that needs overhauling as societies like this must receive significant government funding.

Now, while the follow up programme for neutering cats sounds great in theory, in most cases it doesn’t happen once the emphasis is placed on the new cat owner to pay for and organize the surgery.

Which means thousands of unwanted kittens are born here annually.

Nobody wants to get on the case of the SPCA or Minister Roban for that matter, but both parties need to somehow reorganise policy in order to stop this inevitable explosion of moggies across Bermuda.

When policy changes, aid can come forth for individuals like Kathy, whom I met at Admiralty Park Beach last weekend. She quietly comes along every day to feed the feral felines living there.

She, and a few others like her, pick up the necessary actions that Minister Roban and the SPCA can’t or won’t.

Kathy, without fanfare, pays for the worming of the cats (not the Minister); the neutering of them (again, not the Minister), and pets them along the way too, showing them that some humans do care.

She doesn’t want publicity, but she knows that the need of BFAB (Bermuda Feline Assistance Bureau) does. And here’s why. Without BFAB, which is also a non-profit privately funded organisation (no Government funding whatsoever sadly), that sprung from the hearts of a small few who have vision and humanity in them, Bermuda would have a far greater cat and rat problem than it does.

Look at these facts:

• We would have an unattractive emaciated cat population, which would reflect poorly on Bermuda and its reputation as a civilized vacation destination.

• We would have feral cats breeding with your domestic cat.

• BFAB is the only organization in Bermuda actively controlling the island’s feral cat population through humane methods. Cessation of its work would have dire consequences and its trap/test/neuter/release programme so it must continue. It is the island’s only control.

• BFAB helps control the unchecked growth of feral cat population.

Let’s look past the fact these kindly volunteers should be reimbursed for their work and look at the fact BFAB needs Government funding to help bring vets to the island to aid in this expensive cat control scheme.

BFAB did manage to have one vet here last year, an import from Ireland, but private funding ran out and she had to leave.

So desperate is the plight now that BFAB also needs the government to pass legislation ordering the SPCA to never sell or adopt out a cat of any age to the general public that is not doctored.

This, of course, costs money. And everyone, including me through Songopoly and our association with the BOA, is banging on the Government coffers looking for extra money to help out. And we know there is none readily available.

Which leads to another great need, that of getting private enterprise, mainly through tourism, to come up with plans that help the economy stabilize and raises commercial profit for the Government so it can spread currency into urgent projects like responsible governance of the feral feline problem.

Aghhh, life’s a bitch . . . hmm, hang on that’s a dog. A female cat is called a molly. Okay, life’s a molly!

Some people will say, let’s just eradicate the wild cats. But, killing off the cats here is not the answer as it will lead to a far greater rat problem, and will bring Bermuda into condemnation with the world’s powerful animal humane societies.

So, a structured neutering programme is the only way forward and it must start with the Government legislating (and therefore helping them achieve this) the SPCA neutering every cat they sell or donate.

Just think Minister Roban. You could become the boss, the pip, the championship, and the most tip top, Environment, Planning and Infrastructure Strategy Minister of all time if you implemented it.

Ric Chapman is executive producer of Songopoly TV.