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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: May 2008

Caught to eat, then abandoned

 

WINDHOEK--The all-volunter Cat Protection Society in Windhoek, Namibia in mid-April 2008 rescued hundreds of cats who were abandoned in company housing after the Malaysian firm Ramatex closed a clothing factory that at peak operation employed 7,000 workers. Many other cats died from neglect before the rescuers learned of their existence, wrote Denver Isaacs of The Nambian. Opened in 2002 with heavy government subsidies,

Ramatex-Namibia tried to impose Asian sweatshop conditions, claimed labor organizers. When the Namibian employees unionized, Ramatex quickly settled a strike, but then hired "trainers" from China, the Philippines, and Bangladesh to take over much of the work.

"Surviving cats are being fed on the site until they can all be removed. The Windhoek SPCA has made its quarantine facility available to temporarily house the cats, and all the veterinary clinics in Windhoek are helping by examining the cats and treating those who can be saved," Isaacs wrote.

Other nations employing imported labor from places where dogs and cats are eaten have had similar problems."VITA gets an enormous number of complaints about dogs being caught and eaten by immigrant workers who live in Moscow and the Moscow region," the March 2008 edition of the VITA newsletter mentioned.

As eating either dogs or cats violates both Russian federal law and a Moscow city ordinance, VITA has asked the prosecutors in the districts where the offenses have allegedly occurred to investigate, and to bring charges where possible.