Advocating responsible cat ownership

Cats Protection Bracknell & Wokingham Branch promotes cat welfare in its local area through rescuing and rehoming cats and kittens, and through advocating responsible cat ownership, including highlighting the importance of neutering. The charity also provides information and advice to members of the public on how to care for cats.

How does it work?

Cats Protection’s Bracknell and Wokingham branch works to rescue and rehome unwanted or abandoned cats. Because cats breed prolifically, unwanted litters put a huge strain on the charity’s resources. It is kinder to the animals, as well as more cost effective, to prevent these births from happening in the first place through a neutering programme. All the cats that pass through the Cats Protection centre are therefore neutered before being rehomed, while feral cats are caught, neutered and released back into their natural habitat. The charity also offers subsidised neutering for cat owners who cannot afford it.

How we’re helping

In November 2015, the Petplan Charitable Trust awarded a £5,000 grant to Cats Protection’s Bracknell and Wokingham branch, which was put towards the charity’s local cat neutering campaign. Across Cats Protection, the neutering campaign the single largest of its kind in the world. The idea of the campaign is to tackle the root cause of many cats being abandoned by minimising the number of unwanted litters of kittens that frequently flood local adoption centres.

In 2014 alone, the charity neutered 163,000 cats, 28,000 of which were feral. This represents a huge number of prevented cat pregnancies, thereby significantly reducing the problem of kittens being abandoned. This problem is greatest in areas of urban deprivation, and it is in these areas that Cats Protection concentrates its efforts. The Petplan Charitable Trust grant was used to run a successful reduced price neutering campaign in the Bracknell and Wokingham area, which resulted in a flurry of 178 cats being neutered. The grant has therefore helped the charity’s volunteers to improve the welfare of local cats, as well as encouraging responsible cat ownership. The branch has noticed a significant reduction in the number of kittens needing rehoming – a testament to the success of the campaign.

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