Our Cat Champions
On this page, we are paying homage to our Most Important People. These are the ones:
Who get up on cold dark mornings to feed their cats;
Who go out on rainy windy nights to trap ferals;
Who climb into drain pipes and ceilings to rescue kittens;
Who spend hours on a construction site trying to trap an injured cat;
Who drive from one end of Durban to the other to ferry a kitten from the rescuer to the foster-mom;
Who argue with an ardent cat hater… and finally get them to change their minds about cats…
.all in their own time, and at their own expense.
Cat Friendly Companies
Our Cat Friendly companies have signed up to become part of this project to give cats love, safety, dignity, and lots of food! In return for their support and care of their cats, they are assured of the support of Cats of Durban and a network of cat carers.
Their stories will be published through the press and are featured here on our website. They are alllisted below, and they would appreciate the support of all cat-lovers and animal fanciers.
They are listed in the order in which they joined our project:
The Oyster Box Hotel, Umhlanga: The famous hotel cat, Skabenga
GM Heating, Jacobs Industrial Park, Bluff. The Jacobs Cats
FATS, Umbilo FATS – not just big, but big-hearted…
The Patrol Cat of Penzance Primary School
Pavilion Shopping Centre: The Pav Cats
McCords Hospital – Caring for people… as well as animals
Coastal College, Umbilo
Silversands Resort, Beachfront
Chatsworth Centre in Chatsworth
The Workshop Shopping Centre
Geochem, New Germany
City Fleet, Mobeni
Kent Motors, car dealership in West Street
Cataler – manufacturers of catalytic converters for Toyota
Chassis and Engineering
Murray’s Pharmacy, Pinetown
Cabana Beach Hotel
Westville Hotel
Greyville Secondary School
Jeenah’s warehouse
Independent Papers
Queensmead Laundry
King Edward Hospital
Ekhuphileni Psychiatric Hospital
CR Swart Square
MacDonalds Road Residents Association
Elangeni Hotel
Mansel Road Street Market
Mahatma Ghandi Memorial Hospital
Bluff Hillside Mall
Hillcrest High School
Westville Boys High
SANDF
Our Cash Cats at Cash Converters
South Coast Motors, Amanzimtoti
The Cats of Scottburgh
Mondi Merebank
NCP Alcohols
Spar DC, Phoenix
Sappi Tugela
Transnet Edwin Swailes
Access Freight
Hulamin Group
Hendok Group
Bay View Guest House Amanzimtoti
Natal Rail, Jacobs
Merlog Foods
Where we have failed…..
Cats of Durban does a great deal of lobbying in the interests of cats. Usually, people mistreat cats through ignorance – they are not cruel. And as soon as they receive some information, they change their attitudes and accept that cats have an important role to play in our society and in our urban environment. Sometimes they end up loving their cats!
However, some people will simply not accept that cats deserve protection from cruelty or exploitation. Some of these are people who openly threaten or set out to harm cats. Some of these are people who want to remove and euthenase cats, for no other reason than that they are a ‘nuisance’. Or they are simply not interested in the wellbeing of animals.
We have to name and shame these people, as they have threatened harm either to cats or to the people who look after them, and they are quite happy openly to make these threats. In all cases,we have warned these people that they will appear in our Name and Shame section, and they are unrepentant.
In many cases, we have had to take some legal advice on these people.
Additionally, we are compelled to publish the areas where cats are disadvantaged, as it is in the interests of our cat lovers to be aware of places where cats are under threat.
OK…: Places where cats are tolerated but not welcome (sometimes for legitimate reasons, but usually it is simply because the cats are a ‘nuisance’):
* Truck and Plant Engineering, Pinetown
* Amersham Heights
* Beachhurst
* Cedar Ridge
* Eden Sands
* Grand Birches
* Silver Oaks
* St James
Not so OK: Places where the company or organisation has cats, but is not prepared to do anything about them in terms of care (either through laziness, meanness, or sheer indifference):
* Elgin Engineering, the Bluff
* Defy
* Pail Pac
* SAB Miller
* RK Khan Hospital
* Shoprite Mt Edgecombe
* Dow Chemicals
* Pick and Pay Hypermarket By the Sea
* Clairwood Hospital
* Shoprite Canelands
* Albany Bakery
* Checkers Overport
* City of Durban (eThekwini Municipality – thousands of cats, but you cannot expect the city to look after animals when they don’t even care about people…)
* Amcor
* Chemspec
* Dulux
* Edcon
* Gateway Shopping Centre
* Churchwalk Flea Market, Ethekwini Municipality
* Mansel Road Market, Ethekwini Municipality
Not OK at all: Places where some people are trying to do the right thing, or want to look after cats, but are either a) not being helped by management; b) management disapproves; c) management actively threatens them.
* MTN New Germany.
* Eskom New Germany
* King’s Lynn flats in Albert Park
* Westway Office Park
* Cullingworth Court
* Durdoc Hospital
* Kenneth Gardens
* eBandla Hotel and Conference Centre
The worst: Places where people have actively been cruel, or have threatened cruelty to cats:
* Roy Naidoo – manager of China Mall in downtown Durban
* Alex Vasillos, tenant at Sondela Court in Umbilo
* Nonhlanhla Dladla, manager of the Durban Circuit Court building
* Management of Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital
* Nosipho Gumede of the Gale St Mortuary.
* Diane Hall of Glenmore
* Fountain Court, Mallinson Road, Overport
* Noble Shipping, Glenwood
* Old Fort Chapel, Old Fort Road
* Janet’s Ministries, Papawer Road, Moorcross, Chatsworth
Fraudsters: people who steal money through pretending to care for cats:
* Clayton Whitaker and Claudia Eksteen.
* Wendy Course Smith
People who should not be allowed to own animals:
* Shane Greetham
* Blaine Shepherd