Greek island but without the strays

[TreatTreat]

I'd love to visit a Greek island. Is there one without any stray animals in the main resorts? It'd really upset me seeing them.

You've made quite a few personal attacks yourself love!

You came on a public forum for opinions and you got them- sorry you've been called out on your close mindedness and it's hit a nerve 💁‍♀️

List my personal attacks on you. I called you odd because you are. Saying I look like Madge from Benidorm. I don't. You have zero class and I think that's why you're projecting onto me.

You couldn't be more wrong, I have far more class than someone who is happy for animals to suffer as long as they dont ruin her holiday by existing near her

It's definitely you that's odd, sorry! Doesn't matter how much you bark at me, you're still the close minded, poorly travelled and overly sensitive selfish tourist!

Possibly because in big shiny Spanish resorts the municipality has a policy of rounding up and euthanising strays? I'm hypothesising but it's one known way of 'sanitising' a resort. If that's what you want - a sanitised holiday free of anything that might upset you - then I'd go for a big glossy all-inclusive somewhere and stay inside the compound.

Or: you could look into local cat and dog charities in whichever Greek island you want to visit, and see what they're doing to help, and donate generously to them. Maybe take a walk around the neighbourhood and note that lots of (mostly) little old ladies come out in the evenings with water and cat biscuits. That cats in seaside resorts tend to have colonies near where the fishing boats come in, and do pretty well out of it. Look at their ears. Do they have odd, neat nicks or the tip taken off? That's a sign it's been trapped, neutered and released.

Do you think there are no stray cats and dogs in the UK, or none that are mistreated or abused, OP? Or is it just on holiday that you don't want to see any?

I donate to the town animal shelter where I stay in Spain. They do amazing work and take in so many strays. I just don't want to see animals suffering. All animals should be living their best lives. We know that doesn't happen wherever we go and that is really sad. I'd genuinely want to round up any strays and take them all home with me.

How do the animals cope in the height of the summer when it's too hot in the shade even? Their poor little paws must burn on the floor.

@TreatTreat , actually, you sound like the horrible person here, not @awkwardasfuck , who makes a VERY good point. You are actually coming across as really thick and nasty because you've been called out, quite rightly.

So you only go to that one resort on the Costa del Sol because there are 'no stray cats'?

Let’s call it what it is: you’re not avoiding upset because you don't want to see animals suffer that's a lie, you’re outsourcing cruelty, paying extra for someone to abuse the animals away from your sight instead of feed them and do their best for them where you might see them.

Resorts like that don’t exist in some magical stray-free bubble.

Animals have been eradicated. Poisoned, starved, trapped, or worse, just so poor you doesn’t have to witness a flicker of suffering between spa treatments and buffet breakfast.

You’re not compassionate. You’re cowardly. The kind of person who sees suffering and flinches not out of empathy, but because it might dent your precious holiday vibe.

And instead of doing something remotely humane like acknowledging their existence, feeding one, lifting a finger, you demand they be scrubbed from sight like dirt from your hotel floor.

Here’s the truth: if the presence of a hungry cat ruins your trip, it’s not the destination that’s the problem it’s you. You're not a traveller. You’re a tourist in denial, obsessed with polishing your little fantasy while the world pays the cost.

And guess what? The more you shut your eyes to reality, the smaller your world gets. Until all that’s left is your sunbed, your blinders, and a soul as barren as that 'stray-free' resort you’re so proud of.

And the way you are speaking to others is frankly VERY telling, desparate to pretend you are classy but really ready to lash out because you're wrong and they are unfortunately right on this occasion.

I think the Madge picture was probably more accurate than she ever imagined

Now we see the real you 🤌 probably dont want to see any locals either that aren't being paid a pittance to smile and bow in a white uniform

Not going to places where humans are murdered, tortured, abused, oppressed and so on, is one thing. And I agree with you.

But to apply that to stray cats and dogs is weird. Plus, you’d be very hard pressed to go anywhere in the world if you apply that test.

The pp who just wrote a comprehensive take-down of your self-indulgent policy got it right.

You surmise what you want. You don't know me and I enjoy meeting authentic locals when I travel.

You are deeply unpleasant.

We've surmised what you've shown us - nothing more, nothing less. You've been wonderfully unpleasant yourself, you're no better by the seems of it.

Well you won't find a country on earth where animals, somewhere or somehow, don't suffer. Sorry. Life is often shit. Most of us, you included it seems, try to make a dent in it and change little things for the better. It's all we can do, but we do it knowing that there is no magic wand.

As for being sad that the ground is too hot in the summer for their little paws for heaven's sake. What then is the solution? Just round up and euthanise all the cats in Spain because it's too hot for them in summer?

I think your personal sadness and squeamishness about stray cats who might not always have enough to eat or vet treatment is a bit OTT. Plenty of other people on this thread think so too, so it's not just me.

I maintain, if you stay in a swanky shiny resort in Spain and see no stray cats, that's NOT because - magically! - there were none to see. They will have been cleared away (killed). Because the richer tourists who stay in this posh 'one of the best resorts in the Mediterranean' might not want to see sad, mangy cats on holiday. So in many ways, your choice of holiday might actually be contributing towards animal abuse.

It's a common policy, tidy up the city/resort of undesirables before the tourists/visitors get there. Cities hosting the Olympics have been known to round up homeless people and relocate them.

Like I said before, if seeing sad hungry cats makes you upset (as opposed to knowing that they exist, somewhere, but out of sight, out of mind, right?) then DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Research local cat charities and donate. Talk to some of the locals who feed the feral colonies and learn how locals are trying to mitigate and manage this. My own mother lives in an EU capital city and loves cats. A colony lived nearby - she started feeding them, realised that this in itself wasn't helpful, then started trapping, neutering and releasing. And in some cases paying for necessary veterinary treatment aside from neutering. She makes a little difference.

Unless they're four legged locals it seems.

But that is their natural life as a wild animal?

I think extending their life placing them in a house cage where they can’t live a free life is so much worse. And don’t get me started on the animal charities that think feral cats are better off terrified in a cage because they’ll live longer. I’m all for a catch, neuter/spay and release program if the numbers need to be kept under control but treating cats at objects to be preserved as long as possible for human consumption is total cruelty.

Me too! A few weeks back we fell in love with the resort cat and her little kitten. OMG adorable

We've already been over this countless times on this thread. If they were all neutered I would be fine with it. Trap, neuter and return is the aim of all rescues with regards to ferals. Ideally with an ongoing welfare support for any needing vet treatment. But that's far from what the situation is in these places.

But the reason these colonies exist in the first place, just like in London, is irresponsible humans. The get a cat, they don't neuter, the cats is then abandoned or gets lost and before you know it there's a huge feral colony.

And who mentioned cages? Of course that's not what anyone wants. What people who care want is for the cats to be neutered and ideally for no new colonies to be formed.

This

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I donate to the town animal shelter where I stay in Spain. They do amazing work and take in so many strays.

I thought you said there weren't any strays where you stayed in Spain?

You said this better than I ever can.

There must be strays but I don't see any, especially in large colonies like in some places.

Me feeding stray cats whilst I'm on holiday for a week is not going to improve their situation and you're stupid to believe otherwise. Would you go to Egypt and see the way they treat their horses there and not come away feeling sad? I don't want to have to see any animal suffer in any country. That's all. Me going there is not going to improve the cats life.