Eco Hvar

Cat Feeding Stations

Published in About Animals

We are delighted to see our cat feeders being put to good use! The initiative is developing slowly but surely.

Cat Feeding Stations

We welcome: 1) suggestions as to where cat feeding stations are needed and

2) volunteers who will guarantee to look after the feeders, keeping them clean and provided with (high quality) dry food and water.

The system cannot work unless there are people nearby who are willing to take responsibility for the feeders in different areas.

Eco Hvar of course will do as much as we can to help supply the necessary foodstuff and in any other way that we can .

The aims of the cat-feeding project

We are trying to provide adequate food for as many cats as possible, to ensure that the cats have a chance of living healthily. An important part of the project is the sterilization programme. In recent years, the local authorities on Hvar, as elsewhere in Croatia, finance cat sterilizations to help reduce the numbers of unwanted cats in the environment. Some authorities pay for males and females to be sterilized, some for females only. Taking stray cats for sterilization requires careful planning: the cat has to be caught in the morning and taken straight to the vet. Most importantly, after the operation the cat has to be taken into a safe environment for a day or two until it has recovered enough to return to its old haunts. The local vets cannot provide after-care unless there is an emergency.

Some people do not like animals, and cats in particular. So one of our aims is to help prevent the cats from being a nuisance, by reducing the numbers of unwanted cats and providing basic facilities for them.

Healthy, sterilized cats who are used to being handled have a better chance of finding a good home, so of course the best outcome is for the street cats to be adopted and given the right conditions for a good life. Some stray cats on Hvar strike lucky and move into a life of safety, comfort and even luxury. When they do, it can be difficult to imagine them scavenging for food and chancing their luck in the uncertain world of homelessness. The ginger cat in the picture below is a good example, the only clue to his previous life in the wild being the notch in his right ear which shows that he was sterilized under the programme for strays.

Ginger fell happily on all four paws! Photo: Vivian Grisogono

How to help

If you want to help the island's stray cats, please read the detailed information in our article 'Cats: How to help when needed'.

REALISTIC OFFERS OF PRACTICAL HELP TO EXTEND THE CAT-FEEDING PROJECT WILL BE GRATEFULLY RECEIVED VIA EMAIL This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 November 2023.

back to top
You are here: Home about animals Cat Feeding Stations

Eco Environment News feeds

  • Do we want to keep fixing the same issue? Unlearned lessons from the first big oil crisis

    As energy prices tripled in the 1970s due to Middle Eastern wars, Scandinavia, France and the Netherlands sped up green transition

    When Middle Eastern wars sparked an oil crisis in the 1970s, tripling energy prices and throwing economies into chaos, some countries looked beyond short-term solutions. The French made nuclear the pillar of their power system. Scandinavians insulated buildings and funnelled waste heat into homes. The Dutch built bike lanes where others wanted motorways. The Danes developed wind turbines.

    Such steps cleaned filthy air and cut imports from autocrats but took a back seat when Russia invaded Ukraine half a century later. Europe raced to buy gas from the US and Middle East. Policies to roll out renewables by cutting red tape helped reduce dependence, but calls to use less energy and reduce waste were muted. Industry lobbying and populist backlash have since sabotaged efforts to phase out petrol cars and fossil boilers.

    Continue reading...

  • Week in wildlife: a wet macaque, four little pigs and a stowaway fox

    This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

    Continue reading...

  • ‘It has changed my life’: How a dose of nature is treating mental illness

    A project in London is helping hundreds of people, providing a genuine alternative to traditional treatments

    “What you’ve got there from the sun on your face is a massive boost of serotonin!” says Alison Greenwood, founder of Dose of Nature, the charity successfully prescribing time outside as a treatment for mental health.

    Greenwood is striding round Pensford Field, a tiny patch of wildness tucked behind houses in south-west London. The bright day is illuminating the early blackthorn blossom, gleaming off the pond where a heron watches tiny froglets and shadows of birch trees on a wood-chip path. “All these trees and plants are giving off phytoncides, and they’re good for your immune system too,” the former NHS psychologist says.

    Continue reading...

  • Nearly three-quarters of England’s woods inaccessible to public, study finds

    Exclusive: Campaigners call for government to introduce right-to-roam bill that allows people to walk around their local woodlands

    Nearly three-quarters of England’s woods are off-limits to the public, buried government documents show.

    The study by Forest Research, which is a government-funded quango, found that 73% of English woodland is publicly inaccessible.

    Continue reading...

  • Mining’s toxic timebomb: dams full of poisonous waste are dotted around the world. What happens when they burst?

    While tailings dams are meant to last for ever, extreme weather events are making many unstable – with devastating consequences for nature and humans

    As soon as the barrier broke, a flood of poison brought death to the river. Gushing through the fragile wall built to hold back mining waste in Zambia’s copper belt in February 2025, more than 50m cubic litres of acid and heavy metals poured into the Chambishi stream – a tributary of the Kafue River, the country’s longest waterway.

    Thousands of lifeless fish rose to the surface as a plume of acid floated downriver, leaving dead crocodiles and other wildlife in its wake.

    Continue reading...

  • No drama, just wet feet: how the joy of puddles sums up UK weather

    We do not generally get epic tornadoes, sandstorms or avalanches, but we may get splashed by a bus on the road

    Puddles, small and temporary pools of water typically formed by rainfall, hold a special place in British culture. They are the embodiment of the national weather’s tendency to produce mild inconvenience rather than drama. We do not generally get epic tornadoes, sandstorms or avalanches, but we do get wet feet, or splashed by a bus driving through a puddle.

    The story of Walter Raleigh spreading his velvet cloak over a puddle so Queen Elizabeth I could cross while keeping her fine shoes dry is probably apocryphal. But Raleigh’s gallant if pointless gesture is typical of the low-stakes difficulty presented by puddles.

    Continue reading...

  • Country diary: Frogspawn returns to the pond I built with my father | Claire Stares

    Langstone, Hampshire: A glistening raft of jelly is a promising sign of a frog resurgence after newts dominated for a decade

    I register the arrival of spring through small, dependable signs in my garden: queen buff-tailed bumblebees wobbling through purple crocuses in search of nectar; the pungent scent of wild garlic; bluetits prospecting the nest box below my bedroom window; and the wren’s cascading song heralding the start of the breeding season.

    Frogspawn used to be one of these markers, but not for many years. Then, 10 days ago, glancing more from habit than expectation, I saw it – a glistening raft moored against the water forget-me-nots. After such a long absence, it felt quietly momentous.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘Kast is more like Trump’: Chile’s environmentalists prepare to do battle for the country’s future

    Fears are growing that the new far-right president will slash environmental protections in favour of foreign investment

    In Chile’s most northerly region, Arica y Parinacota, Andrea Chellew, 62, relies on tourists for her cafe. They usually travel from the coastal city of Arica to the unique biosphere of the Andean highlands, which rise well above 5,000 metres and host nature reserves and wetlands.

    At 3,000 metres (9,800ft) above sea level, along Highway 11, she lives by the trade route that brings raw materials and goods between Bolivia and Chile. Yet the cafe remains empty as fewer tourists come, amid more reports of increased mining activity near environmentally protected areas, such as the Lauca national park.

    Continue reading...

  • March for Romans was a time to sow conflict as well as crops

    Rome did not only organise its agriculture in tune with the rhythm of the seasons, it also fought its wars that way

    March is named for the Roman god Mars. He was among other things the god of agriculture, and the month was marked by ceremonies to protect new crops from bad weather.

    Mars was the god of war too, and better weather also meant the start of the campaigning season. The roles sometimes merged. In one of the oldest Roman ceremonies, the “leaping priests” of Mars, 12 young men from noble families would dress as ancient warriors and parade around the city singing in an archaic form of Latin for a good beginning to the planting season.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘The last frontier’: how red globules of nickel ore are suffocating an island’s precious wilderness

    In the race to meet the demands of the energy transition, biodiversity hotspots such as Palawan in the Philippines are being increasingly mined for critical elements

    Moharen Tahil Tambiling lowers himself from the fishing boat into the water and gingerly picks his way over the reef circling the bay. At low tide here in Brooke’s Point on Palawan, a long, rugged island in the south-west of the Philippines archipelago, the coral is just under the surface, and it looms suddenly under the waves, scraping at the boat’s wooden hull.

    Beneath his feet are brain-like mounds and curling fingers of coral. Leaning over the side of the fishing boat, the men point out different kinds: some which were once vibrant orange and others that should be delicate pink. Now, almost everything is the same dull khaki, covered by a thick film of silt. Another man jumps overboard, stirring the sediment. A cloud rises like thick smoke over the reef.

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds

Copyright © 2026 Eco Hvar. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Orion Informatika.