Stray animals, especially dogs and cats, remain a problem in Madeira. Today, several associations signed a protocol with the Funchal City Council aimed at sterilising stray animals and helping families with limited financial resources.
Sara Machado, from AMAIS – Madeira Animals Association, notes that the problem is more evident with cats, whose colonies are more mobile, and the animals have high reproductive capabilities.
For this reason, the 17 thousand euros allocated by the CMF to the association is “extremely important as it allows them to create better conditions for the animals they treat. Without this money,” she says, “it is not possible to carry out as many sterilisations as we would like.” So far this year, the municipality of Funchal, although its action covers the whole island, has sterilised 178 animals.
Sara Machado explained that despite the continuous efforts of the associations and the municipality, the stray animal situation, particularly cats, continues throughout Madeira. “We do a lot of sterilisations, but there is still a lot of work ahead,” she said, adding that many of the animals currently on the streets result from successive generations of abandoned pets.
Concluding, she argued that animal population control requires continuous and coordinated work across the island, warning that it is not enough to act only in one municipality, since the animals circulate between the different municipalities.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
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