GET ACTIVE FOR CATS WORLDWIDE!

solomonar

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tarasgirl06 tarasgirl06
We are on the same line. "Purebreds" are somehow against the Natural Laws. Still, breeders can do a positive job by preserving genes which could be useful in the future or by rising the awareness.
I always advise people who want a cat to do their best to find a so called "European breed" - which is the diplomacy way of speaking about stray, ferals, rescued ones :-) . Having in mind that a "shelter" here is most likely a pure personal endeavour, with low visibility and struggling to survive financially, this advise is not easy to follow.

Therefore, a cat advocacy organisation here should address quite a lot of issues:
- enhancing visibility of the "home" shelters
- establishing a seed-money mechanism
- convincing local authorities that they need to care stray cats, but not in the (sometimes cruel) way they did with the stray dogs
- awareness rising about adopting a rescue cat
- general education about how to care a colony (I saw people feeding cats milk and rice)
to name only few :-)

Another big challenge here is to include cats care in the disasters plans. Apparently, most decision makers beleive that cats cant take care on their own in such events. In one project I attempted to convince that cats should be considered when designing the disaster preparedness and intervention plans, but to no avail.
 
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tarasgirl06

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tarasgirl06 tarasgirl06
We are on the same line. "Purebreds" are somehow against the Natural Laws. Still, breeders can do a positive job by preserving genes which could be useful in the future or by rising the awareness.
I always advise people who want a cat to do their best to find a so called "European breed" - which is the diplomacy way of speaking about stray, ferals, rescued ones :-) . Having in mind that a "shelter" here is most likely a pure personal endeavour, with low visibility and struggling to survive financially, this advise is not easy to follow.

Therefore, a cat advocacy organisation here should address quite a lot of issues:
- enhancing visibility of the "home" shelters
- establishing a seed-money mechanism
- convincing local authorities that they need to care stray cats, but not in the (sometimes cruel) way they did with the stray dogs
- awareness rising about adopting a rescue cat
- general education about how to care a colony (I saw people feeding cats milk and rice)
to name only few :-)

Another big challenge here is to include cats care in the disasters plans. Apparently, most decision makers beleive that cats cant take care on their own in such events. In one project I attempted to convince that cats should be considered when designing the disaster preparedness and intervention plans, but to no avail.
Alley Cat Allies has fact sheets and talking points to help when speaking to power about cats. They also have webinars.
Yeah, agree on the "against natural laws" point! I'm a multi-racial person and while some people may not think that's 'natural' it's what I am, and what a lot of other people are (Bob Marley and Barack Obama being two very famous and very important examples), and I'd respond to those people by saying that if it wasn't "natural" it wouldn't be possible. Same with cats. And mixed-genes cats tend to be healthier and longer-lived than purpose-"bred" cats. That's proof enough right there, for me. I've been to two cat shows in my life. Of course the cats are beautiful. And so are all the OTHER cats.

Not that it helps you directly, but there ARE people in Eastern Europe who are working exclusively with and for cats, as this shelter in Serbia: Cat Shelter Felix and if you google "cat shelters in Eastern Europe" you should pull up a variety of listings, as I just did.
 
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solomonar

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Its complicated :-)
Although Serbia is in Europe, it is not a Member State of the European Union. In fact, only a part of the European countries are Member States. Even for the Member States the companion pets procedures are not completely regulated at Union level ("harmonized" in the Brussels jargon). Nevertheless, organisations from other European countries may share their experience, I agree.

One organisations that is active in all countries is Four Paws (Vier Pfoten), but they are cats-and-dogs. This one I thing is among very few here, according to my knowledge, that can compare to TCA in terms of coverage, expertise and visibility.

In some Member States the cat issues reached high levels:
Spain: First Parliamentary Forum on Feline Protection | CAROcat
But I do not know how much impact they had.

You see, our dialogue suggests me to design a sort of "getting to know each other" meeting here. I suppose TCA did a similar thing in their beginning, so I will dare to ask them, and to register for webinars to learn.

===

Indeed, the heterosis (mixing genes) is a way to ensure species resilience. I suspect it is the same with Homo sapiens.

===

Interesting, I found many people approaches cats because they are cute animals. Of course they are, but they are predators in the first place and not domestic animals at all. This means that all Natural Laws apply in full to them. So the organisations to protect them should differ from the ones focusing on - say - dogs.

On the other side, cats are no longer wild animals, so the organisations working with wild life are not suitable to work with cats.

Mind twisting :-)
 
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tarasgirl06

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Its complicated :-)
Although Serbia is in Europe, it is not a Member State of the European Union. In fact, only a part of the European countries are Member States. Even for the Member States the companion pets procedures are not completely regulated at Union level ("harmonized" in the Brussels jargon). Nevertheless, organisations from other European countries may share their experience, I agree.

One organisations that is active in all countries is Four Paws (Vier Pfoten), but they are cats-and-dogs. This one I thing is among very few here, according to my knowledge, that can compare to TCA in terms of coverage, expertise and visibility.

In some Member States the cat issues reached high levels:
Spain: First Parliamentary Forum on Feline Protection | CAROcat
But I do not know how much impact they had.

You see, our dialogue suggests me to design a sort of "getting to know each other" meeting here. I suppose TCA did a similar thing in their beginning, so I will dare to ask them, and to register for webinars to learn.

===

Indeed, the heterosis (mixing genes) is a way to ensure species resilience. I suspect it is the same with Homo sapiens.

===

Interesting, I found many people approaches cats because they are cute animals. Of course they are, but they are predators in the first place and not domestic animals at all. This means that all Natural Laws apply in full to them. So the organisations to protect them should differ from the ones focusing on - say - dogs.

On the other side, cats are no longer wild animals, so the organisations working with wild life are not suitable to work with cats.

Mind twisting :-)
You raise valid points and ones that lifelong cat lovers like myself are very familiar with, and accepting of. Cats developed from desert ancestors and are still very much desert animals, as are some of my ancestors, which may be why we understand one another so well. And yes, those that want a dependent companion that will do their bidding (dogs) have trouble understanding that cats are in no way like them! but that is exactly what I love about cats. They are highly intelligent, very sentient and sensitive beings whose behaviors are based on survival instinct and also on their own preferences, not something a human tells them to do. Cats decided on their own to come in from the cold *or more correctly, heat!* to be our companions. Why, we'll never know. Too many times, it has had such dire consequences for them. But they help us in so many, many ways! and to me, they are the best companions.
Europe, especially Eastern Europe, is a very complicated matter, I know; and with the region having been in such change for many decades, things are very fluid. Your idea is timely! The feline advocacy community is global, but in all different stages of development. Everything any/all of us can do toward advancing their cause is so crucial. There are good and caring people out there with intelligence and good ideas. They just have to be brought together, as here in the States as well. Some European nations are far above the US in this. For instance, in Finland, you can't just get a cat off the streets, as spay & neuter is apparently so well practiced that in order to adopt a cat, you have to find someone who has some, and pay for the privilege of adopting. Turkey is apparently very humane in some cities such as Istanbul, where cats may not have regular homes but many people will feed and get medical care for them on a regular basis. There is a film 'KEDI' ('Cat') about some of these cats and their caregivers. I'm not suggesting these nations/communities are perfect or that there aren't abusers there. Those exist everywhere. But there is a more caring mindset in the instances I'm citing. Italy has communities that take it upon themselves to feed and obtain regular medical care for cats, such as the Colosseum cats. Bringing these threads together and advancing collectively is the next step. More and more individuals here in the US are connecting with each other and forming TNR/medical/feeding/managed colony groups, rescue/adoption groups, education groups, etc. It's very heartening that since the pandemic began, instead of people here throwing up their hands, they/we have been working harder than ever, even in the face of our terrible Surgeon General's decreeing spay/neuter to be "elective" rather than essential.
A resource you might want is Animals 24-7 | News about pit bull attacks, cockfighting, zoonoses, nature, wildlife, dogs, cats, horses, cattle, poultry, shelters, rescue, vegan & vegetarian issues, black history & humane work, feral species, and animals in natural disasters. I just searched and nothing came up for Romanian cats, but it is a newspaper reporting on global issues regarding animals of all kinds, and you can search by continent. I was one of their earliest subscribers and regard them as an essential resource.
 
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