Under pressure hospital reverses its cat cull policy

Date Published: 20-Dec-2012

By DARA BRADLEY

A policy of killing feral cats in an effort to tackle a fleas outbreak at a city hospital is set to be reversed, the Galway City Tribune understands.

There was outrage among animal lovers last week when it emerged the Health Service Executive (HSE) West had engaged a pest control company to capture and destroy a colony of feral cats at University Hospital Galway (UHG).

The HSE said it had engaged the company to put down feral cats because it believed they were responsible for the outbreak of fleas at UHG’s outpatients department.

Over the past three weeks a number of staff had reported being bitten by fleas. It is believed up to 15 cats were killed as part of the programme to rid UHG of fleas.

The Galway Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (GSPCA) and the Galway Cat Rescue condemned the actions of the HSE when it emerged in the Galway City Tribune that cats were being destroyed. Both organisations said it was “ridiculous” to blame feral cats for the fleas outbreak.

As well as fears that the elimination of cats from UHG could cause a rodent problem, there was concern that family pets could be mistaken as wild and killed during the operation.

It caused widespread anger among animal lovers and an online petition urging the HSE to cease its policy of killing cats received widespread support, in Ireland and abroad.

The GSPCA, which has a strictly ‘no kill’ policy, met with HSE representatives yesterday and put a number of proposals forward that would not involve any further killing of feral cats.

“Representatives from the GSPCA and Galway University Hospitals (GUH) met this morning to discuss options to manage the problem of wild cats on the grounds of UHG. It was a very positive meeting and included a proposal from the GSPCA which is currently being considered by the hospital.”

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.