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View(s):Colombo City is experiencing a feline problem, with requests to the Colombo Municipal Council from the Presidential Secretariat and the National Hospital for assistance to deal with the growing cat population.
The CMC’s Chief Veterinary Surgeon Dr Vipula Dharmawardena said they had a written request from the President’s Office this week, asking that measures be taken to control the cat population without harming the animals. A similar request from the National Hospital had come last month.
“We have had many complaints, including one from the courts complex area at Hulftsdorp, and from market areas in Colombo. They say cats are becoming a nuisance,” Dr. Dharmawardena said. The chief veterinarian said there was no census done to ascertain how many cats were in the city, but complaints indicated there were a large number of stray cats.
“We have to sterilise and vaccinate the animals. This is the only way to control their population,” he said. Dr. Dharmawardena said the sterilisation and vaccination programme for stray dogs in the city was nearing completion and not a single case of rabies caused by dogs was reported in the city for a year.
He said the programme had to be extended to the cat population now as more and more complaints were coming in.