The Animal Aid Association has nearly 20 active members. This year, the organization received PLN 40,000 from the City. “People think that’s a lot,” says “ii,” the SPZ president Czesława Szandrowska. But the money goes toward sterilizing and treating stray cats as well as buying food. “In the first half of the year alone, we spent about PLN 5,500 on food,” she adds.

Some allotment gardeners have no problem with the cats being sterilized. Others feel exactly the opposite. “They insult us. They claim it’s against nature. They say: let them breed!” the organization’s head recounts. “Yes, but then they raise the kittens for two months and bring them to us, supposedly because they were abandoned. Isn’t allowing them to reproduce and then not knowing what to do with the kittens against nature?!”

A similar situation occurred quite recently. A man called Ms. Czesława and said that a pregnant cat had come to his house. He asked what he should do. The SPZ president immediately replied: hide her. However, she pointed out that the cat should be sterilized. What’s more, she arranged it. “I called the veterinary clinic and said that the man would come there,” the organization’s head recounts. A happy ending? Not at all. The president continues: “After some time, the man called again. He explained that the cat had given birth again and now had another six kittens. I told him that I recognized his voice and that I had arranged sterilization for him two months earlier.

Why he did not take advantage of that opportunity is unknown. Later, the man wanted to... give the kittens to the Association. Ms. Czesława agreed, but on the condition that he would help raise them. He refused.

That was not the end of the story, either. Some time later, the president of the Animal Aid Association received a call from a veterinary clinic, where a woman had arrived with six kittens that, she claimed, had been abandoned there. Ms. Czesława asked how old they were. When she heard the answer, she asked the woman to give the kittens to the man mentioned above.

On another occasion, a man contacted an acquaintance of Ms. Czesława after a woman had given him PLN 50 to “get rid of two cats.” Fortunately, he did not have the heart to do it. This story ends somewhat better. Both cats are doing well now, but the male cat who stayed with the Association’s head was in terrible condition at first. He was afraid to go outside and sat under a cabinet. He was frighteningly thin. “He looked awful,” emphasizes his current owner. Now, after several months, things are completely different: the tomcat turned out to be an exceptionally strong-willed animal. He even established his dominance over Ms. Czesława’s dog.

Another situation? A call from a woman who noticed two kittens by the Bóbr River. In... a nylon bag. Someone probably wanted to drown them but threw the bag in such a way that it caught on a tree.

“We have many such incidents,” says Ms. Czesława. “The situation is tragic; there are more and more cats. Before, when I heard stories like this, I thought: what nonsense, a tall tale. Now, when I see it with my own eyes, I am speechless: all I can do is sit down and cry. I don’t know whether people’s attitude toward animals will ever change here.

Finances are also a problem—as is usually the case. “Some people think we have piles of money, that the European Union sponsors us. And that we should do everything,” the president lists. “The reality is more unpleasant. We pay out of our own pockets.

The Association leases from the Municipal Commune a plot of land where two old garden huts and an annex stand. Twelve elderly cats, all with difficult pasts, live there. “Obviously, we won’t take young ones there,” Ms. Czesława explains.

You Can Help

The organization also handles adoptions. It also runs the “A Can for a Purring Cat” campaign. What would be most useful to the Association? Not money, the SPZ head firmly emphasizes, but food. If anyone wants to help, they should buy food specifically. It does not have to be a product from a renowned company. Blankets and polystyrene would also be useful. And, for example, a piece of wire mesh, because the fence around the plot is collapsing.

More information is available by telephone: 790 790 848.