Thousands of Cats Left Abandoned on Thailand’s Phi Phi Island

Over 1,000 of cats have been stranded on Thailand’s Phi Phi Island,left behind by their owners after COVID-19 killed the Island’s tourism industry.

The cat’s owners, who were working people and entrepreneurs, left the islands at the start of the pandemic, thinking it would only be temporary. The situation, however, has never really improved.

Only some came back to retrieve their feline friends, after it was clear tourists were not returning to the resort islands any time soon, according to Suda Klinchuen, a volunteer.

The authorities have tried to control the feline population through mass sterilization, but to no avail.

As a result, every day a large number of cats are seen on the roads of the islands, waiting to be fed by cat loving volunteers. The feeding started in March last year, according to Suda.

“A lot of them were starving,” she said, adding that currently she is paying for the cat food.

The stranded cats are, however, remaining healthy, getting fed in the morning and evening by the volunteers. A Facebook page had been set up under the name translated as “The Stranded Cats of Phi Phi Islands” and open for donations.

The authority had surveyed the islands and confirmed the feline population was over 1,000.

Meanwhile, the Soi Dog Foundation has launched a new mobile clinic in the southern province of Surat Thani. The clinic is the ninth of its kind in Thailand and has been set up to help manage the province’s street dog and cat populations and stem the spread of infectious diseases through sterilization and vaccination.

Sterilization and vaccination is – and always has been – at the forefront of Soi Dog’s work and is proven to be the most ethical and effective way of controlling street dog and cat populations. Since 2003, the foundation has sterilized and vaccinated over 580,000 dogs and cats across Thailand – more than any other organisation in the world.

The launch of the mobile clinic follows the completion of a five-month project by Soi Dog Foundation on the island of Koh Samui in Surat Thani which saw over 3,000 dogs and 500 cats sterilized and vaccinated. The foundation decided to move to mainland Surat Thani with the same mission after receiving numerous requests for help.