Furever Fixed's sterilisation drive is going nuts.
The East London-based NPO has come up with a cheeky campaign in aid of several feral cat colonies in the metro this month of love — ex-boyfriends beware...
Co-founder Amber Wiggill explained their 'Anti-Valentine's' fundraiser, where donors can give R100 to the animal welfare organisation, which will name a feral cat after an ex-partner, and promptly remove his testicl... neuter him.
The cat, that is.
Wiggill said: “We wanted to do something different this year. We have done the love thing but I saw something overseas where you donate money and your exe's name is written inside a litter box, so cats poo on the name.
Because we do sterilisations — which is taking the balls off, we thought, hang on, this could inspire some innocent revenge and funny pettiness
“Because we do sterilisations — which is taking the balls off, we thought, hang on, this could inspire some innocent revenge and funny pettiness.”
Some men have taken offence to the campaign, which is being shared on the NPO's Facebook page — known online as Furever Homes.
The first post on Facebook was of a feral black cat in a trap, with the caption: “Meet Craig. Craig the cat was named for human Craig, who took the time to message us and let us know how offended he was by our competition. A big thumbs down to human Craig, but cat Craig, we love you and we are happy to have changed your life. Thank you for the name Craig and a special thank you to that special someone who sponsored it.
“We have had an amazing response from women, and a few men like Craig who were completely offended, but we were expecting that — messages about being man-haters, saying 'I hope one day a man sweeps you off your feet'. What is so funny is I'm actually in a relationship and my boyfriend loves the drive; he thinks it's hilarious.”
Newly snipped cats are now Michael, Matthew, Shayn, Gary, Ryan, Sam, Josh, Piero and more.
It was tricky to navigate exes with unique first names.
“We all have really bad exes; when people send a name, some women tell me the story of why they broke up — this guy is a cheater this guy did this... But a lot of men have enjoyed it and are laughing. Someone called Craig commented on the post saying ‘it's not me!”
Founded in 2018 by Wiggill and Amy Long, the NPO rehomes dogs and runs a sterilisation programme for cats from 15 colonies across East London. Neutering males is the best way to counter over breeding.
“We have volunteers who help us with trapping every day. We take them to the Snip Clinic in Berea, which costs R600 for males and R700 for females.”
“In Chiselhurst there is a colony where we have sterilised 12 cats. If we hadn't intervened people would start to hurt cats or ask for them to be removed. We are helping as much as we can.
“We want to end the cycle of cats living on the streets. It's not good for the cats, people or the environment. A male can force ovulation and impregnate multiple females, and the operation is less complicated than spaying female cats.”
The drive brought some much-needed humour to the gruelling and traumatising experiences of animal rescue.
“It can be exhausting and heartbreaking work; sometimes we just need some fun. On a day-to-day basis, we deal with dead or injured cats in horrible conditions and as animal lovers it's hard to deal with that.”
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