Eco Hvar

Feeding cats in Brela

Published in Forum items
I am staying at the Hotel Berulia in Brela and have been feeding a mother,father and five kittens about (10 weeks old). Do they get rid of the kittens in the winter when there are no guests?
I know my airline takes pets, but this may be very traumatic for them and it would be difficult to leave some. I have 5 days till I go back to Zagreb for a flight back on Mon, so there is not a lot of time. Can you help or give me advice?
G., UK Visitor to Brela (a coastal resort on the Dalmatian mainland), 14th July 2014
 
I am sorry I couldn't reply to your email earlier, and obviously I am now too late to advise you before your return home.. I have been away, and am just catching up with the backlog.
During the summer, cats in the tourist resorts are generally well looked after by kind people like yourself. In the normal course of things, the mother will gradually find alternative sources of food for her kittens, and set them on their way to independent living. It is a good thing if the mother is given the opportunity to keep her kittens long enough to teach them what they need to know, and to bring about the natural separation.
Although they are dependent on humans to a great extent, cats are also very canny, and usually find ways of ensuring their survival. The main problem facing them here as elsewhere is the question of feeding increasing numbers if they are allowed to breed without any control. Where cat numbers are considered excessive, then sadly there is little help provided for them: there is no provision for sterilizing them, except privately by individuals, and very few catteries where they can be taken in and given basic shelter and support. Obviously one of Eco Hvar's aims is to remedy this situation, at least on Hvar.
I hope it will reassure you to think that 'your' kittens will almost certainly be fed and petted through the summer, so that by the time autumn comes they will be mature enough to hold their own.
I very much hope that you enjoyed your stay in Brela, one of the Dalmatian coast's many beautiful places.
Eco Hvar 23rd July 2014
 
Thank you for your reassuring reply. I managed to find out most if the information with regards to the cats. Although the airline I was travelling with did carry animals, the problem was the pet passport. If they are too young to get the rabies jag (which by the size of them I think they were), they would have to go in to quarantine for 6 months. The nearest one where I live is 3 hours away, so it would be difficult to maintain a relationship with them. It would also have been extremely traumatic removing them from their mother and then placing them in the cattery for 6 months. U.K. is very strict, I could have sorted it, if they could have got the rabies blood test, as you only have to wait 21days, and I would have got someone to look after them for this time. It was not  to be, and yes it would be better if there was a neutering program - but this costs money and sometimes countries have other priorities.
I loved Brela and the  Dalmatian coastline was spectacular - unfortunately I didn't make it to Hvar - maybe next time!  I wish you well in your venture, and if there is anything I can help with (I will check your website again for updates) let me know and I will try to help.
G., 24th July 2014
More in this category: « Stray cat in Hvar Town Glyphosate comment »
back to top
You are here: Home forum items Feeding cats in Brela

Eco Environment News feeds

  • UK ‘built for climate that no longer exists’ and needs urgent changes to survive global heating, report warns

    Landmark report calls for widespread air conditioning and says UK temperatures forecast to exceed 40C by 2050

    British homes will need air conditioning to survive predicted levels of global heating, the government’s climate advisers have warned in a report, as measures such as drawing curtains, opening windows and growing trees for shade are not likely to be enough.

    Air conditioning should be installed in all care homes and hospitals within the next 10 years, and in all schools within 25 years, according to the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which published a major report on adapting to the impacts of global heating on Wednesday.

    Continue reading...

  • The English community that brought its river back from the brink: ‘If we can get it right here, we can do it everywhere’

    For 150 years, the Mease had been altered by human hands, which destroyed habitats. But in 2013, a restoration project began – and now its wetlands are abuzz with wildlife

    ‘A noisy river is a healthy river,” says Ruth Needham of the Trent Rivers Trust (TRT). The Mease in the Midlands must be in fine fettle, then, as it gurgles merrily along. Sunlight glints off riffles in the water and shoals of fry dart past. Needham whips out her phone to video the tiny fish: “My colleagues will be jumping for joy to see them!”

    Needham has good reason to be buoyant. Last month, the Mease won the UK River prize 2026 – which was established by the River Restoration Centre in 2014 to acknowledge innovative projects –in recognition of the trust’s 13-year restoration campaign. “The prize has been a massive boost,” says Needham. “If we can get the Mease into better condition, we can improve other rivers, too.”

    ‘We wanted to get people to work together’ … Ruth Needham of the Trent Rivers Trust

    Continue reading...

  • Blinded and broken, Sunny the owl becomes another casualty of Russia’s war

    Ukrainians lament appalling toll of fighting on their country’s bird population

    Russia sent kamikaze drones to attack the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia in February. They hit buildings and killed several people. One unreported victim of the bombardment was a male long-eared owl, blinded in one eye and found with a badly broken wing. A passerby scooped up the stunned bird, put him in a box and took him to the city of Dnipro.

    The owl – nicknamed Sunny – is now recovering in a cosy room belonging to Veronica Konkova. No longer able to fly or hunt, Sunny instead hops around.

    Continue reading...

  • Rachel Reeves to protect ‘critical’ clean energy projects from legal challenges

    Chancellor’s planning shake-up would ‘reduce exposure from judicial review on all but human rights grounds’

    Rachel Reeves is ​preparing to announce a planning shake-up ‌that would fast-track clean energy ​and infrastructure projects by curbing judicial reviews, the ​Treasury has said.

    The chancellor will propose that parliament should be able to designate and approve the most important clean energy projects as of “critical national importance”, as part of a wider package seeking to soften the economic blow from the Iran crisis.

    Continue reading...

  • Collecting pollen can be as exhausting for bees as flight take-off, study shows

    ‘Floral buzzing’, the vibrations bees use to shake pollen loose from flowers, takes more energy than previously thought

    Bees use as much energy collecting pollen through “floral buzzing” as they do taking off in flight, a study shows.

    Scientists have found the vibrations bumblebees use to shake pollen loose from flowers are among the most exhausting behaviours they perform, forcing bees to “carefully choose” which flowers are worth visiting.

    Continue reading...

  • Spending watchdog warns £38bn cost of Sizewell C nuclear plant is ‘risky’

    National Audit Office says potential benefits are ‘considerable but uncertain’ while risks are ‘immediate and substantial’

    The cost of the government’s £38bn nuclear plant in Suffolk is subject to “significant uncertainty” and may outweigh the benefits for UK households until at least 2064, according to the government’s spending watchdog.

    The National Audit Office (NAO) has warned that although the potential benefits of the Sizewell C nuclear plant are considerable, they remain uncertain. The risks, however, are “immediate, substantial and borne by the public”.

    Continue reading...

  • Rainforests pushed to breaking point by new demands for resources, report says

    Need for minerals, biofuels and pulp adding to pressures from ranching, monocrops, oil and logging, analysis finds

    The growing extraction of rainforest resources is pushing the Amazon and similar biomes towards breaking point, a report has shown.

    Fresh demands for critical minerals, biofuels and pulp – used in fast fashion, processed food and packaging – are compounding existing pressures from cattle ranching, monocrops, oil and logging, the analysis finds.

    Continue reading...

  • Plantwatch: how goat’s rue inspired super drug for everything from diabetes to obesity

    Galegine compound in plant formed blueprint for metformin drug, but without the toxic side-effects

    Goat’s rue or French lilac, Galega officinalis, is a wild plant and often grown in gardens for its clusters of attractive lilac or white flowers. For a long time the plant was also used to treat diabetes. Its key ingredient was later identified as galegine, which lowers blood glucose levels but has toxic side-effects.

    Eventually galegine led to the development of the synthetic drug metformin, now the classic treatment for treating diabetes by controlling blood sugar. Metformin has none of the toxic side effects of galegine and is now one of the most prescribed drugs in the world. But for many years metformin was vilified and banned in many countries because of its association with galegine.

    Continue reading...

  • ‘Should we leave them to die?’ The battle over how to save orangutans from the curse of palm oil

    As new settlers clear their forest habitat, the apes are coming into conflict with humans. But simply moving them to another part of the forest may not be the answer

    The banana skins were an ominous sign. As was the branch that had been broken off to get to the fruit. Had Edi Ramliwalked into the forest, he might have seen scattered balls of bark that had been ripped off trees, chewed like gum, then spat out. It takes a powerful jaw to do that. Closer to Edi’s home, there was an intricate construction of bent and broken branches high in a tree. The nest.

    It was October, the fruiting season. The pile of half-eaten bananas was less than a minute’s walk from where Edi and his family slept. He felt nervous. He got on with his day. He picked sweetcorn and sold it at the market. He bought a carton of chocolate milk and biscuits for his grandson. He and his wife, Siti Munawaroh, ran the farm with their three adult children. They prepped the land, sowed seeds, tended crops. Survival depended on what they could grow.

    Continue reading...

  • High risk yet home to thousands: the makeshift towns at the mercy of landslides and floods in Peru

    Like many informal settlements, communities that have sprung up on the edges of Ayacucho in the Andes are on the frontline of extreme weather events

    In December 2009, a late‑afternoon storm unleashed torrential rain over Ayacucho, in Peru, hitting poor hillside neighbourhoods hard. The deluge overwhelmed drainage systems, turning streams into lethal flows of mud, stones and debris that flooded houses and streets and trapped drivers at a busy junction.

    Ten people died, 18 were injured, and 530 houses were destroyed or damaged, according to a government inquest. “It was a disaster,” recalls Edgar Castro, a leader in Ayacucho’s largest informal neighbourhood, Mollepata.

    Continue reading...

Eco Health News feeds

Eco Nature News feeds

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