ITOSHIMA, Fukuoka (Japan): The cats of Himeshima Island outnumber the island’s 140 human residents, and the about 150 animals recently were neutered as part of a plan to improve their health and wellbeing.
The island, part of Itoshima, Fukuoka Prefecture, is known as a place where people can interact with many cats. Tourists can visit the island by regular ships.
According to residents of the island, the cats there initially were mostly strays, with a population in the dozens. Residents began feeding them several years ago after tourists voiced concerns the cats were troublingly emaciated.
The stray cats were found to have reproduced at an unusually high rate, and their rate of illness, injury and death was high.
Yoichi Hama, 62, a film director living in Itoshima, was worried about the condition of many of the kittens, which were thin and sickly, and he sought donations to pay for operations to neuter the cats. A total of about ¥1.8 million, far beyond Hama’s expectations, was donated.
Hama asked an animal hospital in Nakagawa in the prefecture to conduct sterilization operations.
Island residents and other volunteers captured the cats and brought them to a port on the opposite shore on fishing boats because they were unable to secure a place for surgery on the island.
The operations were done inside a special vehicle.
It took 10 days to conduct all the operations. Sick kittens received additional treatments. The cats were also treated for fleas and ticks before being released back onto the island.
Island residents have since been discussing how they can jointly care for the cats to make them “community cats.” - The Yomiuri Shimbun
