[Supplementary Information] Wild Vs. Abandoned
[Supplementary Information] Wild Vs. Abandoned
  • Reporter Jung Han-kyu
  • 승인 2011.09.06 12:59
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Before the details are laid out, the relevant terms must be defined. The cats found in the wild can be categorized into two groups: abandoned and wild. Abandoned cats are not afraid of people for these cats were once cared for by owners. The wild cats, on the other hand, stay on their guard when people are near, and even become hostile when people try to come closer.

The city of Pohang allocates part of its budget into poaching and treating abandoned animals. There is an abandoned animal shelter and a designated animal hospital to carry out the job.

The abandoned animal shelter originally captured cats, as well as dogs, and kept them up to 10 days until they were parceled out to new owners. The animal hospital either neutralizes or euthanizes cats. These roles, however, have changed greatly as the number of cats has increased explosively.

The experts say that the cats are noticeably harder to capture than the dogs. To add fuel to the fire, the population growth rate of cats has gotten out of hands. The animal shelter has currently given up capturing cats because they not only have insufficient manpower to meet the demand, but also limited capacity to shelter all of the captured cats. Currently, they just lend traps instead.

The hospital chemically neuters only the abandoned cats, and releases them into the wild. Neutralization seems like the best choice to control the increasing number of cats, but it can only be applied to the abandoned cats for safety issues. The abandoned cats are usually friendlier, but the hostile wild cats may pose threat to the citizens.

The wild cats are usually immediately euthanized, but this is not so easy either. The hospital says that it takes about 100 thousand KRW, which is not so cheap compared to the allocated budget.