Worldwide Veterinary Service

WVS Cadiz Report by Melanie Gretton

This feral cat neutering project was organised by the Kismet Account, a WVS associated charity, in March 2004. The aim was to join forces with a local veterinarian and the Sociedad Protectora de Animales y Plantas in Cadiz, Southern Spain in order to carry out a week of neutering and any other necessary veterinary work.

Our team consisted of a vet, Melanie, Jo Saunders VN, Ian MacFarlaine VN, Elaine Foster, Denise Fitzgerald and Michelle Smith.

I travelled down from the north of Spain to meet the team after working at a sanctuary in Medina del Campo, to the west of Madrid. Having worked alone at the sanctuary, I was looking forward to the luxury of vet nurses and the warmer climate of the south. My past experiences of charity work abroad have taught me to ‘always expect the unexpected’ and this trip proved to be no exception. I arrived at the hotel meeting point, where, after a brief period for introductions, the Protectora informed us that we would not be able to carry out the work intended. The General Elections were due to take place the following weekend and in this highly charged political atmosphere, some of the candidates had latched onto our project and by opposing it seemed to be trying to gain votes. An article in the local paper the day we arrived declared that as a vet, I would be working illegally there and taking feral cats from the street, neutering them and then returning them to where they were trapped was ‘abandonment’. Apparently, at any other time, the problem of feral cats is never even acknowledged. This was a major hitch that could not have been envisaged and we were all shocked and disappointed by the news.

The Protectora told us of a couple that they had been working to help. They had 40 cats in a small flat on the 8th floor of an apartment block. The authorities had said that they had to rehome all but 5 of the cats and they must all be neutered. The circumstances that had led to their situation were very moving. Initially, there had been 70 cats in the flat but due to the work of the charity, they had managed to reduce the numbers. The couple’s affection for the cats was genuine and the lady proudly named all the cats and gave me a detailed history of each of them. They were all in good condition and very friendly. The subject of animal hoarding has been brought to our attention in the UK by several recent cases reported in the press and when you see a case firsthand, you realise that once things get out of control, they become alienated and their fear of the consequences if they ask for help, just compound the problem.

The decision was made to go to the flat and neuter all the cats in situ which we felt would be least stressful for the cats. When we arrived, they had been confined to one room and starved overnight as we requested. The smell of ammonia throughout the flat was overpowering, reminiscent of some calf sheds I have visited in the UK. We got going straightaway, the couple were amazed at how rapidly their living room was converted into an operating theatre and recovery room!

I operated at the dining table with a nurse monitoring anaesthesia and after about five hours, trying to keep my morale up! On the first day, we worked for 11 hours, with a short lunch break sitting on a wall outside the tower blocks and feeling very conspicuous! Once we had got into a routine with everyone having a specific job to do, things ran smoothly and we finished the work in 2 days. We all felt a great sense of achievement and seeing the sincere gratitude of the couple was reward enough.

With no more local work possible, I suggested that we return to the sanctuary I had been working at in the north. SCOOBY was set up in 1997 as a sanctuary for the Spanish Greyhounds (galgos), many of which are ‘disposed of’ at the end of the hunting season in December/January. Traditionally these dogs suffered horrendous deaths at the hands of the hunters when the season finished. Often they were hung in the woods, this practice still continues to a lesser extent, although it is now illegal.

SCOOBY relies on volunteers for the veterinary and kennel work and with over 350 dogs this year; there is plenty to do! After a 9-hour journey north, we settled into our accommodation and got to work the next day. Things were hectic with operating, sorting out treatments and attending to sick animals. Kennel cough is a problem and some of the dogs become anorexic, needing intravenous fluids and antibiotics. Bite wounds are also common, particularly in the larger groups. Males and females are housed separately in an attempt to reduce the aggression problems and unwanted matings. The shelter doesn’t turn away any breed of dog and also have a separate pen for cats. Entire cats are kept in cages until they are neutered and can be released into the large run. We neutered all the remaining cats and some ferals trapped in the local area, as well as 16 dogs. The majority of the galgos are so gentle and trusting, despite their ordeals, you can’t help but fall for them. Having to leave them for a second time was very hard, especially my favourites!

Sadly, the day before we were due to return to Cadiz, bombs went off at several train stations in Madrid, killing around 200 people and injuring many more. Driving through Madrid the next day in torrential rain, we saw a constant stream of umbrellas heading for the anti-terrorism protests. We later learnt that 2 million people turned out in Madrid alone.

Back in Cadiz, Jessica, from the Protectora and her husband, showed us around the city and we visited the parks where there are many feral cats, one of the areas we had been going to work in. Oddly, there was no sign of any cats and we hoped that this didn’t mean that they had been removed by other means in an attempt to resolve the problem. We were treated to a wonderful meal on our last night, courtesy of the Protectora and their hospitality was much appreciated. All in all, we made the best of a difficult situation and gained a lot of satisfaction from the work.