“Join us and be responsible owners,” dozens of pet cat owners urged during a Cats’ Festival parade organized by the Stray Cats Protection Association (SCPA) in Taipei yesterday.
“Whether you buy it or adopt it, you should think it through before you decide to have a pet,” said a flyer distributed by the group during the event. “A cat can live up to 15 to 20 years — it may be just a passer-by in your life, but you are its whole life.”
The cat owners were eye-catching because they not only brought their pets with them, but many also dressed up as cats.
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
The SCPA was founded two years ago by Sara Choi, who originally came from South Korea as a student, but then decided to stay and work to protect stray cats after she completed her studies.
There are about 10,000 to 20,000 stray cats in Taipei City alone, Choi estimated.
“Our main tasks are to TNR stray cats, find adopters and sometimes help rescue stray cats,” Chiu Wen-chun (邱文君), a volunteer at the association said.
TNR refers to the process of “trap, neuter, release.”
“If a cat can survive well in a neighborhood, we’d prefer to let it stay there instead of putting it in our shelter,” Chiu said.
However, due to hostility from a community, physical handicaps or other reasons, the SCPA still shelters nearly 50 stray cats, she said.
The cats in the shelter are awaiting adopters, Chiu said.
Not everybody can adopt cats from the association, though.
To prevent the cats from being deserted again, “we first interview potential adopters, and then we would ask them to sign an agreement after the pass the interview,” Chiu said.
All cat adopters must agree to allow the SCPA to continuously track the condition of the cats they’ve adopted, she said.
Although all SCPA volunteers are happy to do all they can to help stray cats, they still hope that the issue can be eliminated from its root.
“People abandon their pet cats for different reasons — their parents don’t allow it, they broke up with their girlfriends or boyfriends, the cats were being too naughty,” Chiu said. “But you should think carefully before you decide to get a cat and once you do, you should never abandon it for any reason.”
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