Posted on 06/09/2008 12:30:37 PM PDT by Ebenezer
(English-language translation)
“Stowaway rats” that enter the Port of Old San Juan through cruise ships and other vessels will not have to fear the old city’s cats if Commonwealth Veterinarian Carlos Carazo accomplishes his plan to eliminate the sterilized-cat colonies the “Save A Gato [Cat]” group is trapping and sterilizing to control the population. However, the National Park Service (NPS), the federal agency having custody over [Fort] El Morro, has determined that “it is necessary to keep a cat colony in order to prevent diseases caused by rats.”
According to a letter Carazo sent NPS last week, “the Department of Health does not support any program to ‘trap, sterilize, and release’ stray cats,” and having cats in Old San Juan is “contrary to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico’s public policy.” The letter mentions that NPS must reject agreements it has with humane groups to feed the cats, not permit anybody to feed cats in its property, and “contract” for the removal of the cats as soon as possible. Carazo denied during an interview this meant killing them, but he admitted he did not have a solution and that it is the rescue groups’ responsibility to find one.
The programs to “trap, sterilize (and vaccinate against rabies), and release” began in England over 20 years ago and are common and successful in the United States and Europe. The best known is the program from Rome, Italy where the stray cats in the city’s historical monuments have become a tourist attraction. Carazo alleges that the Italians had determined that the program was a failure, but there is no way to confirm this. For more than 10 years, Italian law has prohibited killing healthy stray cats or dogs.
Contrary to Carazo’s allegation that these programs cannot be undertaken in urban areas, they have been successful in reducing cat overpopulation or keeping [the population] stable. For example, shelters in the City of San Diego reported a 50% decrease in cat euthanasia after trapping and sterilizing 7,000 cats over four years.
According to Carazo, part of the problem in Puerto Rico is caused by people who release unwanted cats in the Old City. Carazo alleges that the population was growing, although he could not cite a study to that effect.
But according to Save A Gato President Sylvine Sherwood, the Morro colony has decreased from 250 cats in 2005 to around 100 today based on censuses taken regularly by NPS. The decrease is due to natural causes, since once sterilized, they do not reproduce. This colony is part of a scientific study by the University of Georgia.
“Cats are very territorial, and they stay within their own colonies,” Sherwood said, thus contradicting Carazo’s allegation that the felines wander freely from group to group.
“In addition, the cats are a tourist attraction, and I have more than 200 letters supporting that,” Sherwood said.
Carazo works within the structure of the Department of Health and with the newly-created Commonwealth Animal Control Office, whose elimination of the Old San Juan cats will be its first project. Carazo says two people were bitten by them, and since the biting cat could not be identified, $2,000 had to be paid for treating each [bite incident]. He invoked “confidentiality” when not providing more details but admitted the people were not attacked, but rather attempted to touch the animals.
They attempted to remove the managed feral colony at one of the shipyards here. The cats were vaccinated and altered by a local society.
The cats left, the rats increased to the point where they returned the cats.
Now the rat population is under control.
This issue is evidence enough that a continued federal presence is needed in Puerto Rico. ¡Que vivan los gatos! ("Long live the cats!")
I am on the side of the cats in this battle!!
LOL..I HATE RATS!!
An online petition drive is underway to prevent the Puerto Rican authorities from killing the cats:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/puerto-ricos-next-killing-spree
Every TNR program I've ever read about snips the tip off one of the ears of each cat it sterilizes and vaccinates. This makes it easy to tell if a cat that bit you had been vaccinated. And a single rabies vaccination lasts longer than the normal lifespan of a feral cat (even though some vaccines are labelled as only good for one or two years, research has shown otherwise).
Old San Juan need not worry about cats and rats. I was just there this past weekend, and the amount of trash in the streets which is picked up at every blue moon, as well as the increase in homeless individuals and/or individuals with certain mental health problems is something that I have not seen before. I assume that, as the economy everywhere goes south, that these social problems will increase - and especially in a dysfunctional island-nation as Puerto Rico.
Sadly, Puerto Rico is turning into a province of the Dominican Republic.
I think you have made a good point. While the National Park Service and Save A Gato are taking care of the feral-cat issue, the Department of Health should look into the public-health impact of piled trash and homeless/mentally-ill people roaming the streets.
They are a tourist attraction and they control rodent and pest populations. Whoever wants to exterminated them should be removed. No doubt it is Democrats wanting to take and waste their hard earned money.
I would think that cats that kill rats would be the least of Puerto Rico’s worries.
While Old San Juan remains one of my favorite places in the world, I’ll admit that City Hall has never been able to handle activities that involve even the smaller crowds.
Another problem is that these fancy restaurants spend fortunes on ambiance inside, but they readily place their garbage just outside on the curb waiting for the city to pick it up, instead of having it hauled away immediately by a private contractor. To me that doesn’t make any sense at all.
To add insult to injury, they organize a street festival that involves a lot of free food and booze, and I ask how’s that supposed to keep the homeless away.
But I agree with Silvie. It can be dissapointing to watch such a beautiful and historic place deteriorate under piss poor management. I kind of feel the same way when I go to DC.
I don't know what has happened to San Juan in the last 10 months. Under Santini, the place had flourished in the past couple of years. The last time I went there (last August) everything looked fine... this time, it was depressing and sad to walk around... it made me sad...
Some people just have to cause trouble because their lives are lame. The cats were taken care of .....stupid people need to leave them alone and get a life.
Sounds like New Orleans.
Oh Grate, looks as though he doubts there is real freedom in the world outside his cage.
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