21 municipalities had the same distinction, but Montmoreau is the smallest of these and weighs as much as the others, notes an elected official, Jérôme Desbrosse. A pride shared by the municipal council, including Jean-Michel Bolvin, the mayor. And it was one of his advisors who took the issue head on, Corinne Charrannat.
Last May, when the scourge was denounced by residents, she had in mind to lead this campaign. In the spring, she was waiting to make an agreement with 30 million friends to bear half of the veterinary costs and hoped the municipality would be eligible for state aid. The envelope thus multiplied by five greatly facilitates logistics: everything is taken care of.
Montmoreau: The puzzle of stray cats
Montmoreau is conquered by stray cats. The town hall, required to stop the wandering of animals on its territory, will launch a sterilization campaign to try to stem the scourge.
Already, sixteen trapping cages have been acquired. They will be installed, by municipal agents, in the homes of individuals who have reported the phenomenon. It is up to them to act as lookouts and alert when an animal is trapped. It will be recovered by the town hall technicians, led by their director Gérard Péronnaud, who, equipped with a chip reader, will verify the identity, or not, of the captive animal. Without a tattoo, considered without an owner, the cat will be sterilized.
Free cats of Montmoreau
And Jean-Jacques Leroy, veterinarian from Montmoreau, reminds: “Every cat owner has a legal obligation to have it identified before it is four months old”. “However,” notes her colleague Margo Lopez, “many do not do it because they consider it too costly, unnecessary, or even contrary to their principles, to insert a chip under their cat’s skin. »And the two offices on Avenue d’Aquitaine, involved in this sterilization campaign, alerted their patients. In addition, after having been castrated, the animal will be identified – in order to recognize it in the event of a new capture – as belonging to the municipality. The owners have been notified.
During their stay with the practitioner, the animals will also be tested for feline immunodeficiency viruses and feline leukemia.
According to the results, if the disease, which is also transmissible, progresses too far, they will be euthanized. Reducing the proliferation of these viruses within the cat community is also one of the reasons for this campaign, without the influence of hormones, the animals are less fighting. But also less nomadic, as a result, the animals released at the place of their capture, operating by territory, will not allow others to come and settle.
The community of free cats of Montmoreau will then be born, they will have the right of citizenship and will be, in the event of an accident, injury or any other damage, covered by the municipality, that is to say all those administered.
