A meow-numental task: Jakarta’s stray cat conundrum

JAKARTA: Three flea-riddled kittens frolic under the feet of a food vendor at a bustling train station in Jakarta, home to one of the biggest urban stray cat populations on the planet.

Numbering as many as 1.5 million by some estimates – roughly one for every 10 residents of the sprawling Indonesian capital – street cats are everywhere and, for the most part, adored.

“Cats are there to neutralise negative auras and to cheer you up,” 33-year-old vendor Saiful Faizin told AFP. He gives the strays water and leftovers from his chicken porridge cart and plays tenderly with the little ones.

With no government department dedicated to domestic animal welfare, stray cat numbers in Jakarta have exploded over the years. They live at the mercy of the elements, dodging Jakarta’s notoriously chaotic traffic and depending on kind-hearted people for food and medical care.

“There are too many cats here, so many end up being killed in accidents involving motorbikes,” said Hilwa Tasya Sholehah, 25, a vendor at a public park.

While they welcome the free rat control, some residents decry smelly cat urine, noisy territorial fights, and property damage such as scratches to motorbike seats.

And although Jakarta has boasted rabies-free status since 2004 – partly thanks to mass vaccination of strays – cats can transmit other bugs or parasites to humans.

“Some people don’t realise that giving food to cats without spaying or neutering them can cause another problem, which is overpopulation,” Carolina Fajar of the NGO “Let’s Adopt Indonesia” told AFP at a sterilisation drive in the park.

“They keep mating, they keep having babies, and the population keeps growing exponentially,” she said as volunteers stuffed cats into baskets by the dozens.

Herding cats

The morning’s effort yielded 89 cats, spirited away to private and government-sponsored facilities to get the snip before being released where they were found.

Let’s Adopt Indonesia, which spayed and neutered 2,274 cats last year, receives money from private donors and overseas foundations to cover the sterilisation costs.

Estimates of the true number of strays in Jakarta vary wildly, from about 305,000, according to one city official, to five times that, according to another. The municipality is conducting a census that will, for the first time, come up with a scientific estimate.

Last year, the city sterilised 21,000 cats under a new programme for which it budgeted 3.5 billion rupiah (about RM802,000) for this year.

“Funding is required far exceeding what is currently allocated” to reach the population control threshold of at least 70% of strays sterilised, Jakarta’s top agriculture official, Hasudungan Sidabalok, told AFP.

He said the service did not have nearly enough official shelters, vets or paramedics to deal with cats in need.

It may seem like a drop in the ocean, but Jakarta politician Francine Widjojo said every cat sterilised can prevent dozens more from being born on the streets.

“One female cat can give birth three to four times a year, and each time can produce four to eight kittens,” she told AFP at her office, surrounded by feline paraphernalia and photos of Yakult, one of her 27 cats and the mascot for her 2024 election campaign.

“Besides the free sterilisation programme run by the government, many animal welfare actors and members of the public are now willing to pay for sterilisations themselves,” she added.

In the city centre, strays gather in large numbers at Dukuh Atas station, flitting fearlessly between commuters and traffic.

A ragged older tabby catches the eye of a woman and meows. She stops obligingly, unzips her handbag and pulls out a small plastic bag of kibble, scattering a handful on the pavement.

It is a common sight in Jakarta, where affection for the city’s stray cats remains as widespread as the animals themselves.