Basel – “We petted the cat a little earlier”

A feeding station for cats was demolished on Thursday afternoon in Basel’s St. Johann district. A cat was killed in the process. «One of our volunteers wanted to feed the cats that afternoon. She came across the chaos and the poor animal. She suffered a nervous breakdown, “says the operator of the cat station, animal rights activist Ines Zehnder, about 20 minutes. Zehnder had just been to the vet when she was informed by the employee.

“Then I left everything and went straight to the station,” says Zehnder. There she saw the destruction with her own eyes. “I was totally shocked that a person was able to do something like this the day before Christmas. We patted the killed kitten two days earlier. ” In the meantime, the police have been notified. “The police didn’t arrive until three hours later and there was nothing they could do. They said it was damage to property and that I had to file a complaint, ”said Zehnder.

“The canton police couldn’t be on the spot straight away, as they had to deal with other, more urgent cases first. She pointed out to the person calling that the operation could be delayed. The police officers then immediately moved out and appeared on site. The operation was completed a little less than two hours after the report was received, ”explains Toprak Yerguz, media spokesman for the Department of Justice and Security on request.

Ines Zehnder has been running the station with her daughters and other animal rights activists for about seven years. “The approved cat station is in a protected location and is set up in such a way that it cannot be seen. The cats have their peace and quiet here, ”says Zehnder. At the moment around ten animals are being fed, two years ago there were several more, around 50 cats. “We then had most of the cats neutered together with Netap, an animal welfare organization. We were also able to find a few cats, ”says the animal rights activist. In the meantime, all but a few animals have been neutered.

She hopes that there will be peace and quiet and that she can continue to feed the cats in the same place. The cats have already returned to the place and will eat as usual. «Unfortunately we miss another cat. I assume that she is also dead somewhere, ”says Zehnder. The animal rights activist filed a complaint against unknown persons with the police on Monday. The police have started the investigation.

Zehnder made the incident at the cat station public on Facebook. The post aroused great sympathy on Facebook, and many users reacted sadly and horrified. Zehnder offered a reward of 200 francs for tips from the population. The amount has now been increased through numerous donations. «I would never have expected such a response after I published the appeal on Facebook. The post was shared a lot. A reward of over 4700 francs was collected for tips from the population, ”says Zehnder. She was totally touched by the amount of sympathy. The animal rights activist plans to hold a funeral for the dead cat.