Animal lover fears for her life

A LOCAL animal activist said she fears for the safety of her cat as well as the lives of a colony of feral cats that she cares for.

Feral Cat Rescue Trust volunteer, Lyn Greeff (57), said the problems started on Monday evening when she made her regular stop at the feeding station that she and fellow volunteers erected on Kensington Drive in Durban North. She said she was not prepared for the hostility that she would receive from one of the home owners.

She told the Northglen News that she had just finished filling the feeding station when a home owner began lashing at her, demanding that she vacate his property. Greeff attempted to explain to the home owner that she was not on his property, but was in fact on municipal property, but he maintained his hostile attitude and even threatened to shoot her and her cats.

“He used such profanity when he verbally attacked and threatened me, I was taken aback. He even threatened to set his dogs on me. In the past we had explained to him about the organisation and what we planned to do, and he was okay with it, so I don’t know what prompted this reaction. I have always kept the area around the station clean and tidy. It is practically invisible and does not obstruct anyone or anything,” said Greeff.

The despondent resident said she fears returning to the site, and does not know how she will continue to care for the colony of cats. The animal lover’s  despair was exacerbated by her alarming suspicion that the cats were being killed off, as less and less food was being consumed by the colony.

On Thursday morning Greeff was devastated to learn from a fellow volunteer that someone had destroyed their feeding station. “I do not have a clue as to what action to take next. Trapping the cats can be done, but relocating a colony of feral cats is nearly impossible, there is nowhere to take them. Continuing to feed them there would be risky as we are now obviously being targeted,” she said.

“I realise that not everyone can be a cat or animal lover, but all I ask is that they do not harm the animals. The cats are innocent, this is a man-made problem. The cats are born or dumped into our urban environment and colonise where there are food sources,” she said.

Greeff further explained that the efforts of the NPO and its volunteers were aimed at managing Durban’s feral cat issue, and when people kill or try to  eradicate the felines they are actually worsening the problem.

“We try to capture, sterilise and release as many cats as we can. We do this from our own pockets. This means that the cats are not only healthy, but their breeding is significantly hindered. Sterilised cats don’t fight and they don’t howl during mating season. Like my colony most of these strays only come out at night, so people don’t even know that they are there. Eradicating the cats only means that other non-sterlised cats will move into the area, causing inconvenience,” she said.