Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, is launching a program in September to control its population of stray cats.
According to the Zhejiang Small Animals Protection Association, Hangzhou has more than 300,000 stray cats, most of them unsterilized and unvaccinated.
Chen Xiaoming, director of the Hangzhou Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Bureau, said the trap-neuter-return program will humanely trap stray cats in the city, sterilize them and return them to the locations where they were found. "We have located communities in the city with large populations of stray cats. Our workers and volunteers will catch the stray cats and send them to clinics to be sterilized," he said.
The government is spending 300,000 CNY (48,000 USD) on the program, mainly in subsidies to veterinary clinics that perform the neutering and spaying operations.Â