WHAT IS GOING ON?

Starting roughly in January 2022 stray cat population in Amwaj has been drastically decreasing. This is unprecedented. I conducted an investigation and the results were unsettling.

I ruled out Municipality as they have no programs for cats.
I ruled out TNR program for 3 simple reasons that 1) many missing strays were already neutered by resident volunteers, 2) a number of females who recently delivered disappeared one after another and had kittens who would certainly die without them, and 3) none of the cats returned to their area.

Amwaj Management representative said that they did not conduct any massive trapping operations.
Lagoon Manager also said they did not trap cats nor received any complaints from businesses operating in Lagoon. However fact remains that there are large numbers of stray cats missing pretty much in most of Amwaj. Judging by responses to my posts on Facebook asking for any sort of evidence yielded no results, only reports from various areas in Amwaj of cats missing as well, but not sightings of traps.

I have sent an email to a person responsible for pest control in Amwaj Management office on July 5 with my findings but until now have not received a response. I believe there should be a response and two way communication, as a lot of people living in Amwaj including myself have invested themselves financially and in other ways to help strays stay healthy and control their population. The least one can do is to support our efforts. However it appears someone is destroying our hard work and there is no way to know if this is going to ever stop.

A person from I Pest Control Company,  one of two companies Amwaj Management deals with, I spoke with mentioned that every now and then they trap cats in Art Rotana hotel as they are not happy with cats entering the beach and the rest of their territory. But they have not done any large scale activities elsewhere.

Right now in Bahrain it is common practice for pest control companies to trap stray cats and remove them from the area. I spoke to a few such companies and they say that they dump these cats mainly in Askar or any other area which is too remote for them to return to the home area.  However there is no way to confirm this as none of the companies agreed to give exact locations or any evidence that these cats have access to food and water as they claim or are even alive.

WHAT WE WOULD LIKE TO HAPPEN

- I believe BSPCA must and has all the right to demand information about where the trapped strays are released to be able to visit those areas to ensure of animal welfare which is their sole purpose for existence.
- Ongoing TNR organized by Amwaj Management
 

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP

- Sign this petition

- Share this petition with as many people as possible

- Join Tala association on Facebook if you want to be part of community to protect the strays

- If you find any evidence of poisoning, trapping cats you can email it to me directly at bringeroflight@hotmail.co.uk or WhatsApp 39952010