Sepang stray cats are living a charmed life
Published on: Sunday, April 14, 2024
By: Bernama
Some of the cats at the park.
CYBERJAYA: Life must have been tough for them when they lived in the streets and relied on kind humans to give them some food to get by.
The same spirit of benevolence has also transformed the fate of Sepang’s stray and feral cat population which has found a place to call home – namely, Taman Kucing Cyberjaya or Cyberjaya Cat Park run by the Sepang Municipal Council (MPS), where they are fed and cared for whilst waiting to be adopted by their “fur-ever” families.
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The park’s resident felines not only look healthy and cute but have also become chubby and affectionate, a far cry from their street days when they were skinny, covered in mange and suffered from diarrhoea and haemorrhoids to the point of their intestines protruding through their anus.
A peek through the wire mesh of the half-wall building housing the cats showed several of them lounging around. Among them were Oyen who is overly friendly, its sister Nur Ain who loves to show off – she would sprint like a marathoner on a spinning wheel whenever visitors come – and Ais Krim who enjoys climbing and sitting on trees for hours.
The brainchild of MPS president Datuk Abd Hamid Hussain, the cat park serves a dual purpose of ensuring public areas like food courts and hawker centres in the Sepang district are free of stray cats and caring for these animals.
Opened in March 2023, the 0.32-hectare Cyberjaya Cat Park is strategically nestled within Taman Tasik Cyberjaya here, becoming an attraction for people who come to the lake garden to jog or pursue recreational activities.
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The Cyberjaya Cat Park, managed by the MPS Landscaping Department, has rescued about 100 stray cats so far, 75 of which have been adopted by the public.
According to the department’s director Arefah Rahim, the park practises the TNA – trap, neuter and adopt – approach whereby the cats are handed over to people wishing to adopt them as pets after they have gone through the treatment and neutering process.
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“This method ensures the cats we rescue don’t return to the streets. We screen the people who come to adopt them and their data is recorded in the e-Cat system that we developed,” she said when met by Bernama.
Elaborating on the park’s operations, Arefah said the rescues undergo a two-week quarantine to ensure they don’t have diseases that could spread to other cats.
“For those with conditions like mange, we treat them first. Once they are okay and have been vaccinated and neutered, they will be moved to the main building (in the cat park) and put up for adoption.”
The cats are free to roam in the main building which is equipped with fans to keep the felines cool.
They also have kibble to munch all day and water to drink from a mini fountain.
“Once a week we release the cats in the park area so that they can play… we do this on the advice of our veterinary officer,” she said, adding the animals would usually return to the building by themselves after a while.
“But there are one or two that love to climb trees and refuse to come down. It can be quite a hassle waiting for them to come down,” she added, laughing.
Arefah said MPS sought expert opinions in all aspects of cat care even before establishing the cat park – from the initial planning stage to the burial of cats that succumb to illnesses.
“The park’s design was developed by our park supervisor Munira Amuary after consulting with experts. We also appointed a panel of veterinary clinics to examine the cats twice a week,” she said, adding veterinarians are on call day and night “because we want these cats to receive immediate treatment in case of emergencies”.
The food provided to the cats is also based on the experts’ recommendations.
On the burial aspect, Arefah said the park uses the “culvert” method where two culverts are placed vertically in a three-metre-deep hole.
“To prevent any virus or bacteria from spreading, the burial site is lined with chalk and charcoal before filling it with soil. This also helps prevent odour,” she said, adding so far only one of the cats rescued by them had died, due to leukaemia.
She also said the cat park employees are all cat lovers, which makes it easier for them to care for the animals.
She said in the initial stage of establishing the park, MPS staff were asked to apply if they wanted to work at the Cyberjaya Cat Park.
“We screened the applicants to ensure they are true cat lovers,” she said, adding the staff at the park is headed by cat ‘expert’ Muhammad Ramdzan Johari, who is assisted by Khairul Anuar Md Rashid.
“I say Ramdzan is an expert because he can identify cats that are pregnant and those that are sick and so on. In fact, his wife runs a cat grooming and hotel business,” said Arefah, who has three pet cats at home.
To ensure MPS’ objectives are met, the Cyberjaya Cat Park only takes in stray cats rescued from public places.
“We don’t entertain people who want to hand over their cats to us. Earlier, some would leave their cats in front of our gate. There were also instances of people dumping their pets here at night.
“This issue forced us to put up warning signs that the area is monitored by closed-circuit cameras and offenders will be fined. Since then, there have been no cases of cats being dumped here,” she said.
The park can accommodate up to 300 cats at a time but currently, it has only about 30 cats.
On its operating costs, Arefah said the park requires around RM70,000 annually to cover its expenses for caring for the cats, and feeding and providing them treatments.
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