Trap, neuter and release

There are indeed too many stray cats on the island (November 10). We are grateful to people like Gita Furber de la Fuente for supporting the SPCA and for all animal-loving people who contribute in any way they can towards trying to solve the stray animal problem in Malta.

The SPCA would like no better than to start an extensive "trap, neuter and release" programme without further delay. However, the Animal Welfare Home it occupies at present in Floriana is much too small to handle such a programme on a large scale. In fact, at present we have only six enclosures where we can accommodate a cat to recover after spaying or neutering, which explains the backlog Mrs Furber de la Fuente is referring to.

As our policy is indeed not to put healthy animals down just because they are strays, the intake of animals into the home to be put up for adoption is restricted by the infrastructure we have at present.

Taking the restricted infrastructure into consideration and that "one has to start somewhere", we prefer to spay female cats rather than male ones. The more female cats are neutered, the less litters there will be to add to the problem of the stray population.

Unfortunately, Mrs Furber de la Fuente found herself in one of those situations where the "good also suffer with the bad". After having encountered a number of instances where cheques bounced when traps were not returned, we had to adopt a rule and only accept cash deposits.

We regret Mrs Furber de la Fuente did not give us a chance to explain this to her when she visited our office.