How does trapping a cat go about?

We sometimes get numerous calls per day. This can be via e-mail, through our special voice mailbox or messages on Facebook. We also receive reports from the Leuven police.

Someone from the association contacts the caller for more details (amount of cats, if there are any sick or injured animals,…) and decides based on this information if immediate and urgent action is needed or not. At this time, we have 15 trapping cages available to be used during these interventions.

VERY IMPORTANT

Natually, everyone would like to be helped as soon as possible. However, we are an association that runs on volunteers which means that we can’t be everywhere all the time. Therefore it is very important to provide us with as much information as possible so that each intervention can go as smoothly as possible.

Zwerfkat in Leuven has a No Kill Policy.

URGENT ACTION

Who:

Sick or injured cats
Small kittens that can no longer be suckled
Kittens about to leave the nest. These are harder to catch and socialise afterwards

Our procedure:

Step 1: An appointment is made with the caller
Step 2: An appointment is made with our veterinarian
Step 3: We look for a shelter within our community of foster families
Step 4: The cats are caught on site with our trapping cages

Duration:

We always work with 2 people and each work 3 hours on average (including waiting at the veterinarian and transport to the foster families).

180 min

2 persons

NON-URGENT ACTION

Who:

All other cases

Our procedure:

These cases are dealt with in the order they come through.

Step 1: An appointment is made with the caller and the status of the cats is determined
Step 2: An appointment is made with our veterinarian
Step 3: The cats are caught on site with our trapping cages
Step 4: The cats are brought to our veterinarian and are sterilised/castrated.

The cats are placed back at the original trapping spot if deemed safe enough and if the caller agrees to feed and shelter the cats. Food and shelter can potentially be provided by ZIL. At that time we will also ask that the replacement form be signed. The waiting list is then adjusted/supplemented.

Duration:

We always work with 2 people and each work 3 hours on average (including waiting at the veterinarian and transport to the foster families). However, in reality it usually takes longer since these cases usually concern a large number of cats.

180 min

2 persons

THE REQUIRED ADMINISTRATION

There is also quite a lot of administration required:

A special register by the Flemish government is filled in (obligatory)
A register of the Leuven police is filled in (obligatory)
We inform everyone on our Facebook page about the trapping
We look for the cat’s personnel via Facebook groups about missing/found cats
If the cat is sick and still at the veterinarian’s sick bay, of course we follow up the case.

All of the above administration easily takes another 60 minutes.

60 min

2 persons