Santa Cruz cat veterinary services tender fails: alternative solutions being sought
In Santa Cruz, a tender for veterinary services for stray cats failed to take place, which forced the city council to look for alternative ways to provide animal care and sparked protests from animal rights activists.
In the city of Santa Cruz, they wanted to find veterinarians for stray cats. The city council entrusted this to the state-owned company Gesplan, but no veterinary clinic or company wanted to participate in the tender. The deadline for applications was August 21.
The city authorities planned for Gesplan to take care of the cat colonies in the city. They even allocated 1.4 million euros for this, of which 130,000 were to go to veterinary services. This was intended to help control the number of cats and take care of them.
Due to the tender not taking place, Carlos Tarife explained that they turned to Gesplan because it was difficult to find companies that would want to do this. Now Gesplan has to find veterinarians without announcing a new tender.
According to the advisor, Santa Cruz will still have veterinary services for cats, and they will work for almost four years. Gesplan will also deal with other issues related to cat colonies to improve animal care in the city.
In addition, the city council plans to build the first shelter for homeless cats. It will be located in the southwest of the city. Gesplan has already received an order for a project worth 145,000 euros. There, cats will be able to stay temporarily while they are examined and cared for. Although the opening date of the shelter has not yet been announced, the authorities want to create a place where animals can be cared for and their population controlled.
There are currently about 115 cat colonies in Santa Cruz, and the city council is considering applications for the creation of another 83.
Animal protection organizations have announced a boycott of the event for Animal Day, which is organized by the city council. They believe that the authorities treat animals unethically and do not consult with those who work with them every day. They are also dissatisfied with the fact that the contract with Gesplan was concluded without consulting volunteers and organizations. Carlos Tarife, on the other hand, believes that it will be a day of exchange of experience.