Hot on the heels of Ben Fogle’s:  New lives in the Wild programme from Sri Lanka, when he visited the inspiring Dr Janey Lowe (Channel 5, 2 April 2024) comes World Stray Animals Day.

The day was founded by a group of over 100 Dutch organisations  which met at the Dutch National Stray Animals Conference back in 2010.  

If, like me, you wish to win the lottery in a very major way, and help every stray cat and dog I the world, we all know that such a win is extremely unlikely and in any case, with about 600 million stray cats and dogs in the world, even if you won the Euromillions when it was about £180 for the first prize, that wouldn’t go very far.

So what can we do on World Stray Animals Day to make a difference and help?

There are a number of organisations which are working to neuter strays and you can find them here. 

• Donate to help them with their work
• Volunteer – a number of them have volunteer opportunities for vets and veterinary nurses
• Sponsor a dog
• Spread the word
• Spread the Adopt, don’t shop, message, although I’m suspect most animal lovers are already doing this. 

Cats Protection once worked out that one female can be responsible for 5,000 offspring over a five year period, which just shows how not neutering can lead to a deluge of kittens.