Isona, in Pallars Jussà (Lleida), in a single year has gone from having a census of 50 stray cats to more than 150. The increase has become a problem for the population and the City Council has decided to put a stop to it with a campaign sterilization that began this week.
In other areas of the municipality such as Conques there are also colonies of cats that will also be sterilized.
At the same time, three feeding points will be created in the town to concentrate the animals in the same place.
These actions will cost the Isona and Conca Dellà City Council approximately 20,000 euros. The hunting instinct of these animals makes them an ecological problem because they hunt birds, reptiles or amphibians of all kinds, according to Miquel Arilla, head of the Pallars Jussà Rural Agents.
Jeannine Abella, mayor of Isona, has explained that it will be difficult to reverse this situation since only if one cat remains unsterilized will the colony quickly grow again.
This is the first time that the City Council has carried out a sterilization campaign in the municipality. Abella has said that it has been done as a result of neighborhood complaints about the increase in the cat population and the problems they have begun to generate.
The mayor has stated that this massive cat sterilization campaign will be accompanied by a sanctioning ordinance. They hope not to have to apply it, she said, but if they want to control the cat population and they feed outside the authorized points, whoever does so should be punished.
The neighbors who are now in charge of feeding the cats near their streets will be the same ones who will voluntarily take charge of the feeding points that the city council will enable.
