STRAY CATS — At least 25 cats roaming the UGM campus were captured on Saturday (28/9/2024). The cats were then taken to the Anatomy Laboratory and Prof. Soeparwi RSH, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (FKH) UGM and given sterilization and rabies vaccination. The activity was carried out to control the stray cat population and increase public awareness of the importance of rabies vaccination.
The Vice Dean for Finance, Assets and Human Resources of FKH UGM, Dr. drh. Widagdo Sri Nugroho, M.P., explained that the growth of the stray cat population on the UGM campus was felt to be a disturbance. Therefore, this activity was carried out to answer complaints from several parties regarding the large number of stray cats.
“This activity is part of our efforts to answer the needs of the campus which is experiencing an increase in the stray cat population. Many faculties are facing this situation, where the number of cats is increasing rapidly and sometimes becomes a nuisance,” said Widagdo as quoted from the official website ugm.ac.id, Tuesday (1/10/2024).
Furthermore, Widagdo emphasized, in this stray cat sterilization program, a number of faculties and work units at UGM also sent cats from their areas to be sterilized at FKH UGM. The sterilization process is carried out in the anatomy laboratory of FKH UGM, and involves veterinarians as well as intern and undergraduate students.
The sterilization process involves several stages, starting from a health check, giving an IV, premedication, to anesthesia before surgery. After surgery, the cat’s wounds must be treated properly, and FKH UGM students are involved in monitoring for one week after surgery to ensure healing.
Meanwhile, drh. Aniq Syihabuddin added, sterilization and vaccination are two effective ways to control the animal population while minimizing the spread of animal diseases, especially rabies. For this program, the animals are handled by volunteer doctors who care about preventing zoonotic diseases.
However, more importantly, this program is intended to raise awareness among animal lovers, especially dogs and cats, to carry out sterilization and vaccination independently. (*/)
