Denver Isaacs
17 April 2008
Windhoek — Dead cats, starving cats and kittens on the verge of death. This was what the Cat Protection Society (CPS) found when it visited the former Ramatex factory in Windhoek to rescue hundreds of cats that were abandoned when the factory's Asian workers returned home.
Most of the cats were found at the abandoned living quarters of Ramatex's Asian workers, who left the country when the factory closed last month. All the cats were starving and some had already died by the time the CPS was informed of their plight. Some dead kittens were found in locked rooms, where they had starved to death with no chance of escape, CPS volunteers at the scene said, struggling to control their emotions.
"I threw up, I cried, and then I tried to catch as many [cats] as I could," one of the volunteers told The Namibian. She said cages made of wood and wire-mesh were found in front of many of the rooms, in which cats had presumably been kept and bred like chickens.
The surviving cats are being fed on the site until they can all be removed. The Windhoek SPCA has made its quarantine facility available to temporarily house the cats, and all the veterinary clinics in Windhoek are helping out by examining the cats and treating those that can still be saved. The CPS hopes to find new homes for as many of the cats as possible, but acknowledged yesterday that many of them would probably have to be put down. The exercise, which started on Monday, is set to continue today.
People who can offer one of these unfortunate cats or kittens a good home are urged to contact the Cat Protection Society at tel. 233378 in Windhoek.
Donations of cat food are also welcome. The CPS is a small charity run entirely by volunteers and it is dependent on donations from its members.
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