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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Remy Greasley

Mum warns new pet owners after she ends up 'feeding 10 stray cats'

A mum issued a plea to new and prospective pet owners after she found herself 'feeding about 10 stray cats' that she could not give away to a centre.

Stephanie Frances, 34, from Wallasey, has seen her house become a meeting point of sorts for the stray and feral cats in her local area, many of which come originally from house cats that were not neutered. Some of the cats do have owners, though are kept outside, occasionally roaming to Stephanie's garden and even into her house at times.

The mum-of-one has had to change her cat flap after strays and random unneutered outdoor cats kept entering and spraying inside her house. But even now she says that she can still expect large numbers of the strays in her garden whenever she goes outside.

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Stephanie posted on Facebook: "I'm seeing more and more people getting kittens and watching them grow up only for them not to have them eventually get spayed or neutered. The situation seems to be getting worse where I live.

"Please don't get animals if you don't intend to get them done. A female cat can get pregnant straight away after giving birth, while feeding her little ones and a male cat, well, they bloody stink to high heaven.

"And then we have the people who have cats who won't have them in the house because they spray. So they start to turn feral and fight or people move out and leave them!

"That's how I've ended up feeding about 10 stray cats! Yes you can tell they are strays, and no organisations won't take them. Why? Because they are well fed by me and not injured.

"It's selfish, cruel and irresponsible to get a cat and then not look after them."

One of the stray cats that Stephanie often finds spraying in her garden (Liverpool ECHO)

Stephanie, who cares for four cats of her own with her daughter, told the ECHO: "I've noticed it's worse at the moment. There's so many stray cats that are coming here.

"My daughter has been been walking past this one kitten every month for the past four months and has been friendly with it, to the point that it's started coming out and greeting her. But it started spraying outside our house because it hadn't been neutered. It stank.

"That's not the only cat that does it. A lot of other people are getting cats which are spraying all around. Why get cats if you're not going to follow through and get them neutered?

"I've got cameras outside and you can see all the street cats coming. I've got a little cat house outside and I've had to change the cat flap because they were coming through it and spraying all the walls in my house, and it stunk.

"There's a nursery near us where there's just a colony of cats, loads of them. The teachers hate it because there's loads of stray cats over there.

"I think they all come from people getting cats and then neglecting them."

Kate Kinsella, the Catery Manager at Carla Lane Animals in Need rescue centre, said this problem is unfortunately a common one. She told the ECHO: "It's a welfare issue from the very start because these poor cats are getting pregnant, then especially with stray cats it becomes a question of where are they going to give birth safely and of the complications they might have during that.

"There can be cases where the kittens are stillborn, or rejected by the mother, even if then they grow up nice and safely they might then grow up into stray cats who are getting pregnant themselves and repeating the cycle.

"Cats Protection would recommend about four months old is when you should be neutering your cat and we'd agree with that. As for kittens that's the earliest they can get pregnant so it's good to know that won't be happening.

"So long as they're a good weight, nice and healthy the vet should be able to do them at that age. But for any reason there is a delay or because of the pandemic it's a case of keeping them indoors until there is an appointment or calling around another vet.

"Also if you've got a brother and sister together, that doesn't always matter to cats like it does to us, so keeping any boys separate from any girls until everybody is neutered is important.

"A little responsibility goes a really long way in ensuring not only their welfare but that of future generations also."

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