GDUFS: Home for Feral Cats

It’s sunny with only a few clouds in the sky. She is sleeping with her body winding into a ball, looking like a snowball from a distance. She occupies the whole corridor in front of the students’ dormitory. With mild breeze and nobody bothering her, she has quite a good nap. Then she wakes up, walking slowly and gracefully to a plate that is filled with food --- And we can imagine what a wonderful day she has. She is named “slant eyebrow”, a feral cat at GDUFS. But she seems to live at home……

A pretty cat

Life of GDUFS Cats---Still worrying

Cats can be found almost everywhere at GDUFS. Not only in the corridors, but we can also see them in the grass, up on the roofs, under the windows etc. Even if you look into the drawer, there may be a cat sleeping there! No one exactly knows where these cats are from and how long they have lived here. However, there is no doubt that GDUFS provides the most wonderful living condition for the stray cats---at the foot of Baiyun Mountain, with fresh air, large areas of plants and above all, kind people. Feral cats are well protected by GDUFS students. We may easily draw a picture of the harmonious relationship between animals and human beings at GDUFS…

A cat in the drawer

Nonetheless, cats are not always popular among students. Some students tell us that they don’t like the feral cats because they’re dirty and noisy. Some students have even been scared by cats that suddenly pop up on the path at night. Cats are not always safe. It is said that many cats die because they sleep under a car. A lot of threats are hiding behind the peace of the campus as well. What is more horrible is that some students abused the cats cruelly merely for fun! “You may think they live quite a happy life but the fact is they may disappear at any time…” YANG Ting, the ex-leader of GDUFS Animals Protection Society told us.

Though students are not allowed to keep pets in their dormitory, some of them are so sympathetic that they take cats to their dormitory to avoid them being injured. However, after graduation, they abandon them for the deficiency of time and energy to keep the cats, or find them a new home, after getting a job. As a result, more and more cats stray around the campus. The life of cats at GDUFS is still worrying.

GDUFS Animal Protection Society --- Students Efforts

Aimed at better protecting the cats, in September of 2014, the GDUFS Animals Protection Society was established by GDUFS students who feel affection for the cats. It is the first organization at GDUFS to offer help to the feral cats. “It was not easy at first as there were only five members in this group…but we got more and more attention after the formal establishment of this society”, said YANG Ting. Now there are more than 20 students in the society, and the number keeps growing. Members of the society feed the cats every day, offering sufficient and safe food to keep them healthy. The students treat them as family, giving away the food and examining their bodies to make sure they are not injured.

Students taking care of baby cats

What’s more, they spread adoption information of stray cats to attract animal-lovers to take care of them. The information can be seen on the Internet, either via WeChat or Weibo. There are some requirements for adoption. For instance, the adopter should have a settled living place and a stable income, supported by families etc. Thanks to the adoption, some baby cats that miss their family can finally settle down and grow up healthily.

A cat and its adopter

The society is also well received for conducting a lot of activities to encourage protecting animals and advocating human-animal harmony. They also support trap-neuter-return (TNR) on cats as an effort to reduce the negative effects brought by an excessive amount of cats. The estrus of cats arrives on spring, when cats begin to breed. Female cats can produce 3~12 babies every year. Therefore we can imagine that, if the cats at GDUFS were not getting TNR, our campus would be a kingdom for the cats! In order to make people understand the importance of TNR, on June 11th, GDUFS the Animal Protection Society held a seminar to share the knowledge about how to deal with feral cats and how to get along with them. They kept telling people that animals are friends of human beings, and should be treated with humane methods.

A cat getting TNR

Besides Chinese students, quite a lot of international students also show their sympathy for cats at GDUFS. According to YANG, an Indian girl had taken care of an injured pregnant cat for a long time. Others also expressed their support for the society…YANG told us that she was very happy that the society was focused on by the international students and it was a good channel to show Chinese students’ love for feral animals and not those who kill dogs or cats cruelly.

Cats eating

We wish that more and more students will be concerned with the feral cats at GDUFS and to live in harmony with animals.

Know more about TNR:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap-neuter-return

Weibo of GDUFS Animals Protection Society:

http://weibo.com/u/3107316922?from=myfollow_all