In her detached house, in the Cholette district, Nathalie (1) catches cats in bunches. “These three were born at the end of April”she states, the young individuals in hand. “As soon as I open my garage, I have to be careful. That day a pregnant cat came home and gave birth.”continues Niortaise.
Since then, the little family has found refuge with Nathalie, who feels obliged to feed them at her own expense. “I will not leave them without doing something”, Does she whisper. Especially since the experience had already occurred in February. “The pound came to collect them, but I learned that they were euthanized because of typhus (2)”sighs the resident of the Cholette district.
“We must demonize the municipal pound”
According to her, the spread began in 2019. “Before there wasn’t a cat. But since Covid it’s swarmed. I’ve already adopted two and I want to do the same with this one”, she explains, pointing to the kittens’ mother. After passing by “dozens of phone calls to Niort town hall and SPA without interference”Nathalie feels helpless
“The first thing you should do when you see an animal in need is to contact the Niort pound”, answer Élise Monnet and Anaïs Désert in the SPA offices. And this often requires some attention. “We must demonize the municipal pound, it’s not a place to die, just a passage”support the two women.
“If the cat is sociable, the pound will check its identification. Usually it’s mandatory.” If the animal has neither a chip nor a tattoo, the owner has eight days to come forward. After this time the cat “traveling together to a new life. He has nothing to do on the streets.”Élise Monnet continues.
Identification and sterilization
For so-called free cats, “those who do not come into contact with people”, the process is different. Since 2019, SPA and Opla (We can help them) have been approved by the city of Niort for the capture, sterilization and identification of cats. “The town hall issues an order to inform the population, we catch them and release them when they are identified and sterilized. These cats don’t have the skills to be adopted, they will be happier on the street”explains Élise Monnet.
These actions are judged by the employees of SPA “tremendously effective” to avoid exponential reproduction of stray cats. “In all the places where we intervened, it worked”they explain, citing operations in the Boule-d’Or district or at the Aiffres border.
The predominant role of the population
So much so that SPA and Opla today talk about an improved situation. “But it only takes two people before it starts again”warns Élise Monnet, for whom the attendance of the population is key. “Stray cats are everyone’s business. The role of the population is crucial. We can easily report irregularities on the city’s website »she adds.
“Stray cats don’t fall from the sky. They are sometimes abandoned”adds Caroline Vallantin, chairman of Opla in Deux-Sèvres. The two organizations remember “civil commitment” on the part of the owners to have their cats sterilized, and the obligation to identify their animals since the law of 6. January 1999. The two keys to preventing spread.
(1) The first name has been changed. Since our interview at the beginning of May, she has managed to give away two of her kittens.
(2) The SPA confirmed to us that typhoid epidemics were occurring at the Niort pound. “This is the risk of bringing in unprotected people,” we are told.
51 cats sterilized in 2023
According to figures provided by the city of Niort, 51 stray cats were sterilized during the year 2023 (37 by Opla, 14 by SPA). In the same period, 34 kittens were cared for. For 2024, Opla has already performed seven sterilizations and taken care of ten kittens. An agreement with the Pas de chat sans roof association was signed to ensure relocations from pounds.
“The primary difficulty is distinguishing a stray cat (within a radius of 1 km around its home) from a stray (feral) cat”filled in by Niort City in agreement with the associations.
