The ‘cat mother of Bahrain’ is giving the kingdom’s strays a new lease of life with her Ramadan programme to neuter the homeless moggies, one for each day of the holy month.
Filipino expatriate Christine Morgate-Gallardo is close to completing her goal with 20 felines already doctored and the remaining felines identified in Gudaibiya and Sehla. Sick and injured strays are also being treated as part of the caring cat campaign.
The 29-year-old from A’ali has been highlighting her activities on social media and supporters and friends have donated around BD700 to help cover the cost of veterinary bills to ensure she reaches her target.
The initiative is part of her broader cat mother (trap, neuter, release) project, which she launched back in May 2020 after seeing the ‘horrible’ condition of some of the strays in Bahrain. So far, she has successfully neutered 1,211 stray, dumped and rescued cats and provided medical help to countless more.
“We have just a few more cats to go and it’s a great feeling to see how the community has come together to make this initiative a success,” the junior secretary, who lives with her husband, seven pet cats and two fosters, told the GDN.
“Each cat represents a day of Ramadan and people have been so forthcoming by sponsoring the activities,” Ms Morgate-Gallardo added, highlighting enthusiastic community support carried out in the spirit of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar during which Muslims around the world fast from dawn to dusk, and when prayer, abstinence and charity are commonly practised.
The animal lover came to Bahrain in 2017 and after observing the plight of the wild cat population on the island wanted to do something to help. TNR is a programme by which feral cats and desert dogs are trapped, spayed (for female animals) or neutered (for males), and then released back into the environment. Practitioners hope to slowly reduce populations over time.
“I have loved cats since I was a child and grew up with pets so helping the strays is something that came to me naturally. My husband and I catch the cats in our free time, on weekends, or after work, and take them to My Pets Veterinary Clinic, where there’s a dedicated setup just for my TNR and treatment cases. These days during Ramadan, I get off at 2.30pm which gives me more time to help,” she added.
Speaking of challenges, Ms Morgate-Gallardo talked about how there are many social media commenters against TNR.
“Some even think I’m going to kill them (the cats) and eat them and some others take videos of me and report me like I’m carrying out a crime. There’s judgement but I don’t mind these comments,” adding that she is convinced, alongside most animal charities and community groups, that the scheme is the ‘only humane way’ to tackle the issue of starving strays.
Speaking of future plans, Ms Morgate-Gallardo aims to continue the work she is doing and hopes others will get bitten by the cause, in a much nicer way than she often is! “I get a lot of scratches and bites whenever I catch the cats so, when you see my hand, it’s full of wounds ... but it’s worth it,” she candidly said.
n For more details contact Ms Morgate-Gallardo on @bahrain_straycats_tnr_program on Instagram.
melissa@gdnmedia.bh
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