Recently a cat show was held at National Press Club Dhaka organised by Cat Concern, an affiliate of Animal Concern of Bangladesh to express love and concern for the animals, especially the pets. It was stated to be the first of its kind which generated much enthusiasm among the visitors especially the cat lovers. Clean and lovely domestic cats were on display at the unique show brought by the owners.
Personally I have special fascination for cat as a pet. When I was in England, a neighbor’s cat frequently visited our kitchen and I used to feed her our Bengali food. The kitty had become so fond of our Bangla food (particularly cooked rice) that she used to come every day during lunch time. The neighbor was a senior citizen whose family used to stay outside. He would mostly serve canned food to his cat which was perhaps not so favourite to the pet.When I look at the free cats and dogs in our wards it makes me sad. Because nowadays they do not find enough, rather no, food for their survival even in the dustbins! Now people in our country take everything of food items leaving hardly any refuges for the free cats and dogs. One would appreciate this fact on seeing the ugly health status of free dogs and cats? (I called these animals as free instead of stray because stray deviates them from the main stream). I strongly feel that we should take some care of these free animals by providing food and some medical treatment to the sick ones. Sometimes free dog and cat gets seriously hurt by accident and they are seen wondering with broken limbs with great difficulty. They deserve our sympathy.
One thing I would like to mention for the cat lovers is that human foods should not be given to cats because they are unable to digest food like the humans. Even milk cannot be tolerated by kitties when they reach adulthood. Onions also should not be given in any form, cooked or raw. However some cooked foods including rice may be given to cats.
Yours truly,
Professor M Zahidul Haque
Department of Agricultural Extension & Information System
Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University
Dhaka.
