Cat Rescue, Maldives

Hello,

My name is Emma, and I am the founder of Cat Rescue, Maldives. We work to relocate abused cats from the streets of the Maldives to forever homes across the world. It would mean the world to mean if you would take a moment to read our story.

Throughout the pandemic, I moved to a very small, remote, locally inhabited island in the Maldives to run a sea turtle rescue and rehabilitation centre. During my stay, it became perfectly clear that the large population of stray cats throughout the country was a huge problem.

There are thousands of stray cats across the country and unfortunately, there is only one animal hospital and only three veterinarians in the whole of the Maldives. This means that medical care for pets and strays is pretty much unheard of. It is therefore an overwhelmingly difficult task to try and control the stray cat population through spay and neutering. Instead, many resort to culling. Every day there is a new report of stray cats being hung, bludgeoned, and burnt alive. I witnessed first-hand the horrific and violent abuse towards these animals, and I knew that something had to be done.

Unable to make systemic change overnight, I started small; rescuing cats from around the island I lived on and rehoming them at the marine centre at which I worked. Many of the cats were abused as new-borns or pushed through our gates overnight, abandoned by their owners. As a result, a large percentage had not developed the necessary skills to fend for themselves and were completely reliant on the care and protection of humans. This is a very dangerous position to be in when many humans would quite happily bag you up and throw you on a burning pile of garbage, if not worse.

To make matters worse, the owner of the marine centre, a man with an abhorrent dislike of cats, made his opinion of the cats living at his marine centre perfectly clear. We received worrying and manipulative threats on a daily basis. I lived in a continuous state of fear, never quite knowing if the cats would still be there when I arrived for work each morning.

It became perfectly clear that these cats were no longer safe there. The cats capable of fending for themselves would need to be taught how to hunt, and the most vulnerable needed to be relocated. It was a very stressful and frustrating mission trying to battle against bureaucratic red tape and cultural resistance but eventually, we managed to get five of the most vulnerable strays onto an aeroplane and relocated to safe and loving homes in the UK. In fact, two of these lucky few now live with me in Burley in Wharfedale, West Yorkshire. We have since managed to rehome another four strays to homes around the world including the UK, Portugal, Brazil and America and we plan to continue our efforts to save as many as we possibly can.

Since leaving the Maldives, the marine centre that I worked at has opened a veterinary clinic offering spay and neutering to local pets and strays as well as giving online consultations. This is a wonderful step in the right direction, but it will not change the negative consensus towards stray cats in the Maldives for quite some time. Additionally, a friend of mine has set up the first officially recognised animal charity in the Maldives, The Zoophilist Society of Maldives. They do amazing work to spread awareness and education of animal welfare and help pay for the veterinary treatments of abused strays. They most recently funded the medical care for six stray cats horrifically burned by an abuser throwing scalding water, in an attempt to kill the strays living near his home.

The scale of this battle seems overwhelming, so we must take small steps, one cat at a time. However, that one small step for us will be world-changing to a cat struggling to survive. If we work together with compassion and dedication, I strongly believe that we can make this world a better place.

I completely understand that we are all struggling finacially right now. However, if you are able to help with any of the following, it would be truly appreciated.

Share – Please share our story with your community along with our GoFundMe and Instagram links so that we can receive help from as big an audience as possible and spread awareness of the heart-breaking realities for strays in the Maldives.

Donate – If you are able to donate anything at all, please do so via our GoFundMe page. Even the smallest donations will make a huge difference.

Care – If you have space at your shelter or know somewhere that might, please consider accepting one or more of our strays so that they can find humans that will care for and protect them. If you would like to discuss this further, please get in touch.

Adopt – If you, or someone you know is looking to rehome a cat, please consider working with us to rescue one of our stray cats. Please also share our story to people looking to adopt.

Work With Us – We would love to develop a relationship with you. Whether that is a sponsorship, a rehoming program or simply just friendship and support. If you would like to discuss how we could work together to make the world a better place, I’d love to hear from you.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read our story and for helping us change the lives of vulnerable and abused strays for the better.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.

Kindest regards,

Emma Stephenson

Founder at Cat Rescue, Maldives

Follow our story on Instagram: @cat.rescue.maldives