Earlier this morning, I took the street cat Sparky (I have been taking care of because he was very ill) to the vet in order to get him neutered. Later on, I can pick him up again and release him. 🙂 He has totally recovered, is extremely active and now he wants to be outside. His siblings and parents live in our garden and I suppose he wants to play with his two sisters. 🙂
There are countless street cats in Israel. I never knew this from Germany. A stray cat would be caught and brought to a shelter. In Israel, however, no one cares and many people are actually happy that there are so many feral cats around, as they eat lizards, mice and other ugly creatures. On the other hand, those feral cats multiply fast and within a couple of months there are two or three generations of the same tribe.
If the amount of cats in a street is reaching a certain peak, people phone the municipality and they are sending out kitty catchers. If a street cat is caught, it will be killed in most cases. However, there is one exception: As soon as a street cat is neutered, it will neither be caught nor killed but just be left alone.
And how do those kitty catchers see that a cat is neutered ? When a vet is neutering a cat, he usually cuts off a little piece of one of the cat’s ears. My vet told me that this is an international sign for identifying a neutered cat.
The vet asked me whether I want Sparky to have this kind of ear sign and I said YES. I don’t know about the cat but this sign will save his life when he is strolling around outside. Any time, the municipality people may show up and start catching feral cats. However, Sparky will not be caught and run away free.
Does anyone of you have experience with this kind of ear sign ?
It is a very common practice in Israel. Especially for feral cats. As I said: In case the municipality is sending out people to catch street cats, neutered cats will not be caught.
In almost every garden in out street, there is at least one street cat family living. Once they multiply and get too many, people just call the municipality and the catcher come to get the cats. Only the neutered ones get away.
I am not too familiar with the law but I guess that in order to get a license from the municipality, you should neuter your cat. However, I cannot say for sure whether the license includes neutering and vaccinations or only vaccinations.
meashearim.wordpress.com 
Er, isn’t castration of an animal forbidden???
B”H
It is a very common practice in Israel. Especially for feral cats. As I said: In case the municipality is sending out people to catch street cats, neutered cats will not be caught.
In almost every garden in out street, there is at least one street cat family living. Once they multiply and get too many, people just call the municipality and the catcher come to get the cats. Only the neutered ones get away.
I am not too familiar with the law but I guess that in order to get a license from the municipality, you should neuter your cat. However, I cannot say for sure whether the license includes neutering and vaccinations or only vaccinations.