Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Welfare has advised against moving stray cats for housing at the Olhu Hiyaa cat facility before the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are duly followed.
Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Welfare has advised against moving stray cats for housing at the Olhu Hiyaa cat facility before the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are duly followed.
Olhu Hiyaa is a cat care facility built in Hulhumale' Phase 2 by the government and Male' City Council to house the stray cats currently living on the streets in the Male' region.
While Male' City Council is currently preparing to begin transferring cats to the facility, the Ministry has stated their reservations against doing so.
They said that although SOPs and plans to follow in transferring cats to the facility have been earlier shared with the Council, no response has been received so far.
With the SOPs not being followed as of yet, transferring cats to the facility may negatively affect the health of the cats, the Ministry said, and there stands a risk that adequate care cannot be provided for the cats.
Concerns raised by the Ministry include:
- No technical employees to work at Olhu Hiyaa have been registered to date. The ministry noted that they hold the mandate to regulate technical persons qualified to provide treatment to animals and standards of care
- Olhu Hiyaa currently does not have cages for quarantine of cats newly transferred there
- There is no proper system yet to conduct surgeries on cats. The ministry said that plans for this system had been formulated and shared with the city council. This includes spaces for quarantine, treatment, neutering and spaying. If this is not abided with, the area housing cats will need to be fumigated and properly disinfected before official work at Olhu Hiyaa commences. While this process is ongoing, no persons or animals can be on the premises.
- There is no proper system to manage dangerous biological waste produced at Olhu Hiyaa
- There are no proper arrangements to provide essentials such as food and water for the cats, or even cat litter.
- Lack of staff to provide care for the cats
- No system within which to seek necessary veterinary medication
- Structural changes to improve Olhu Hiyaa facilities have also been proposed to the city council, the ministry said. These remain unimplemented
The ministry asserted that these issues need to be resolved before commencing services at Olhu Hiyaa.
They said that they had not received any response to requests made for updates on progress in these regards, and called on the city council to refrain from housing cats at the facility before these issues are addressed.
Olhu Hiyaa was officially opened on November 2 by President Dr Mohamed Muizzu. The facility is built on a plot of 5000 sqft provided by the Housing Development Corporation.
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