It is ironic that whilst a veritable hue and cry has been raised over the fate of some newts that currently reside on the proposed London 2012 Olympics site, very little has been done so far to protect a far more agreeable species namely a large colony of cats.
Hundreds of feral cats, who have made the site their home, face being crushed to death by diggers at the new Olympic Park site because the Games' organisers are neglecting them to focus on rescuing a population of newts.
The Celia Hammond Animal Trust claims that the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) had allowed volunteers onto the land for a couple of weeks to rescue cats. However, the ODA has now refused their repeated requests to go back on to get the rest of them.
The irony is that London 2012 organisers are prepared to spend £70K rescuing 150 newts from another part of the Stratford site. Could it be that Ken Linvingstone, the Mayor of London with a well known passion for newts, had a hand in saving the newts?
Celia Hammond, who runs the charity Celia Hammond Animal Trust, said the authorities were being "obstructive".
The charity has set up a petition on its website asking for access to whole of the site, in order to rescue the remaining cats.
Joanna Lumley is a supporter of the campaign, and is quoted in The Telegraph:
"Celia and her team are fully qualified to have dealt with this problem weeks ago had she been granted the access she needed. But this has been denied time and time again, and the appalling mismanagement by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) means that many animals may have died already."
As I keep repeating:
The Olympics is not about sport,
it's not about the environment,
it's not about making the world a better place,
it's about money.
Sign the petition to save the cats here.
Can the ODA please show some humanity to the poor cats stuck on the London olympic site and allow Celia Hammond and her group access so they can try to save some of these poor souls.
ReplyDeleteJust because these animals are feral does not make them any less special.
They are all living creatures just like our pets or ourselves.
Every creature has the same right to life and these animals have been offered a life line by the Celia Hammond Trust.
Please do something to help her save these innocent cats.
The world is watching this story closely to see some compassion from the ODA.
Do not let the great 2012 olympics be overshadowed by this, or the lovely new Stadium to be built upon the dead bodies of hundreds of poors animals.
regards
Colin MacKenzie.....