Canary Islands

andrew021 · 28-03-2006, 11:14 AM

Has anyone been to Gran Canaria?????

The place is overrun by cats. Everywhere you go there are cats.

In the apartment complex I stayed in last year I ended up feeding 8 cats every day. Maybe it was a bad idea as they are probably used to fending for themselves and didnt want them to get used to having a regular meal twice a day as I was only there for a week.

Wanted to take them home with me, especially the 3 kittens.

yola · 28-03-2006, 12:02 PM

Andrew - I think it's the same in most places, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Italy (the latter I speak of from personal experience) - there are just so many stray cats that are either abandoned or live rough but get fed by locals/tourists.

It's a sad indictment of today's society that there are so many ferals - everywhere

Mags · 28-03-2006, 01:13 PM

Cyprus and Lanzarote are the worst places I've been to for stray cats......they seem to be overrun with them. It also amazes me how they are welcome in the restaurants and go around the tables looking for any scraps that have been dropped on the floor........I suppose it cuts down the cleaning up time when they close!

Fran · 28-03-2006, 01:14 PM

I too have found this to be the case at most of the holiday destinations I have been to. I think Portugal was the worst place I have been for this ...every where you turned there were cats and litters of kittens

andrew021 · 28-03-2006, 01:26 PM

Maybe they are welcome at restautrants as they eat the food before the cockroaches arrive. Maybe they are a deterent for cockroaches also.

Mags · 28-03-2006, 01:31 PM

That's true Andrew...... I didn't think of it that way!

yola · 28-03-2006, 01:32 PM

I had a cat sleeping on my lap in a restaurant in Cortona, Italy. Not sure whether he belonged to the eaterie or was a stray but neither staff or I were overly bothered about it!

Julie84 · 28-03-2006, 01:34 PM

Barcelona is the worst place I have ever been for feral cats. At one point I think I had about 30 cats in my immediate vicinity (tuna sandwiches not the best thing to eat perhaps - they did get most of it!

)

Snoof · 28-03-2006, 03:03 PM

Bear in mind, however, that feral cats living in Britain have it much rougher than feral cats in the countries mentioned. The weather is much less conducive to good health here, and there's more wildlife to hunt and eat, as well as oodles and noodles of tourists willing to feed the cute kitties who came begging for foodies.

I think life is much less terrible for a feral cat in Greece than it is for one here. There are also often more wide open spaces with little traffic.

dinahsmum · 28-03-2006, 03:38 PM

I think you could be right Snoof - except when there is a cat-flu epidemic going through, as I have seen once.
I'm sure the Greeks like their cats - I've seen them being thrown fish by the fishermen lots of times - but they treat them differently than we do. maybe more like we did 50 years ago.

One apartment complex in the Canaries asked the visitors not to feed the cats, said they fed them, and had a donation pot which built up a fund for neutering. Think that's best in that part of the world where there are so many people and cars.

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