(22 Oct 2024)
MONTENEGRO CAT TOWN
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
LENGTH: 7:30
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kotor, Montenegro - 9 October 2024
1. Close of street cat, people smiling in background
2. Stray cat, people walking past
3. High shot of town of Kotor
4. Kotor with cruise ship in port
5. Kotor
6. Kotor with cruise ship in port
7. Various of people walking in town
8. Various of stray cats in city center
9. Various of woman feeding kitten with syringe
10. Various of cat playing
11. SOUNDBITE (English) April King, founder of Kotor Kitties NGO:
“It was already a cat town, definitely when we came to visit. It was ‘why would we go to Kotor?’ Oh, everybody in the world says, ‘go visit if you like cats.’ So, my friends and I came for two days, and I just wanted to contribute to a spay-neuter program here and discovered that as many cats as there are there was no spay-neuter program. And if you want to address animal welfare of a population this large, you have to start with the basics of trying to get the population under control, so that the resources of the community balance how many cats or dogs are in the community.”
12. Cats and donated money in box
13. SOUNDBITE (English) April King, founder of Kotor Kitties NGO:
“Many pet owners can't afford veterinary care and food, and there need to be programs that fill the gap and help them take care of that animal as a family member. And even if you are feeding a community cat outside, people are very attached to them, so if the animal is suffering, usually the caretaker is suffering.”
14. People walking around cats in city center
15. Cats in box
16. SOUNDBITE (English) April King, founder Kotor Kitty NGO:
“The attitudes of people are changing. So, at the beginning, we were going to spay ten cats, we had funds for ten cats. It took us four months, and we still hadn’t spayed number ten. So, we had Relja (Cetkovic) sort of direct us to some people who were feeding lots and lots of cats. And suddenly, it caught on. And as people see that the cats in their neighborhood are healthier and better behaved, they are not woken up at 2am by fighting tomcats, it is like: ‘Oh, this is kind of pleasant; maybe spay-neuter is a good thing.’"
17. Relja Cetkovic, veterinarian, in his clinic
18. Various of Cetkovic stroking cat
19. SOUNDBITE (Montenegrin) Relja Cetkovic, veterinarian:
“I have been doing this job for around 20 years, but things started changing six or seven years ago with a greater influx in Kotor of foreign tourists from cultures that are used to a different standard of stray animal care and who perceive stray dogs and cats differently. That's how it started - several people, including April King and a few other American volunteers, brought a few cats to be sterilized, we offered to do it at a low price, and so they started bringing more cats. It ended in the establishment of Kotor Kitties, which gained international stature and helped Kotor build up its image as a cat-loving city, alongside its many other identities.”
20. Close of Cetkovic looking at cat in cage
21. SOUNDBITE (Montenegrin) Relja Cetkovic, veterinarian:
“Over 12,000 cats had been sterilized so far. We also vaccinate stray animals against rabies and infectious diseases. Many foreigners are still involved, tourists who find sick or injured animals in the streets bring them to us. We do not have animal shelters, so after we sterilize a cat, we keep it for a day to recover, sometimes a bit longer, if necessary, and then the people who brought it to us are expected to take it back to where they found it.”
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27 окт 2024
