Feline straying: one year later than the set deadline and still no government report in sight
The passing of the 30 November 2021 law aiming to fight against animal mistreatment has allowed a few rare steps forward when it comes to animal welfare. They are, however, largely insufficient, and those on feline straying are completely ignored. More than a year and a half after these new standards coming into force, nothing has been done about it.
This law effectively plans for neutering campaigns led on an experimental basis by the State in cooperation with mayors and presidents of volunteer local authorities.
To launch this process, a key element must be submitted by the Ministry of Agriculture: a report setting up a quantified diagnostic on the issue of stray cats in France, evaluating the cost of capturing, neutering, and formulating operational recommendations to respond to this issue, all while presenting the arrangements for financing the system by local authorities and the State.
This document must be put forward no later than six months after the enactment, which means that 1 June 2022 is the latest deadline.
August 2023, still no report…
In summer 2022, the government explained that they had already faced difficulties and did not know when the said report would finally be published.
In December of the same year, the MPs in charge of deciding on how this legislation is applied were concerned about the lack of publication, criticising “the inaction of communities and a lack of drive on the State’s part” on the situation of feline straying, all while recalling that “there is an obligation to neuter stray cats in the initial bill and that this had been taken out at the Senate under pressure from local representatives.”
In February 2023, we wrote to the Ministry of Agriculture to ask them for information, question them on a delivery date for the report, remind them of their obligations, but also to send them our research on the subject. A letter that has still not been answered.
And so, we are at the end of the summer and the case still has not progressed.
While waiting, cats continue to suffer
There is nothing very unusual about the government’s inaction on subjects regarding animals and the environment. But here, stray cats continue to reproduce, fight against cold, heat, hunger, bad weather, and human malice. Thousands of kittens born outside continue to die every year from disease or being run over by cars. Those who survive give birth to other individuals, themselves destined for a tragic fate, and so on…
When it comes to mayors, many of them refuse to take responsibility by carrying out neutering campaigns, and can find nothing better to do than ban feeding cats or destroy their shelters. We receive dozens of witness statements along these lines every week. The associations, who are weighed down by requests for support and continue to struggle, are on their side: those defending animals do the best they can to feed, treat, and even neuter stray cats at their own expense, despite inflation making their work more and more difficult.
The only solution to put an end to this misery can be found in obligatory neutering, as is the case in Spain or in Belgium, where this provision even made it possible to reduce the number of euthanisias.
Help us to move forward with this fight: share our report with your local council and sign our petition demanding an urgent national plan to put an end to feline straying and the suffering that it causes.
Translated from the French by Joely Justice