(Ecns.cn) – With the urbanization of cities in China, the phenomenon of stray cats and dogs has been a troublesome issue for both residents and governments alike. However, the Xinjiang government may have now figured out a way to make good use of homeless cats by training them as a "cat army" to fight troublesome rats on grasslands.
This is the first time that stray cats are being used to battle a plague of rats in the world. As early as in the 1990s, Xinjiang set up T-shaped scaffolds to attract goshawks as a measure for catching grassland rats, and later tried to raise foxes to counter the rat menace. Both the two kinds of predators worked effectively in fighting rodents that were destroying crops.
Now with the "cat army" strategy, the Xinjiang government thinks that it will save more human resources and create less pollution and damage to the grasslands compared to the traditional way of placing rat poison and mouse traps.
More than 100 stray cats that used to roam the streets of northwest China's Xinjiang Province have adapted quickly to the environment of 1,100 meters above sea level and have proven to be excellent rat hunters. About three or four cats are placed together and taken care of by a local family. To make the cats comfortable in the grassland, local people have also built pens for them near water sources, and they will receive government subsidies in return for housing the felines.
According to Li Hua, a forest worker in Xinjiang's Bole city, he and his colleagues have observed fewer rats in areas where the cats wander, and local herders also say they have seen fewer rat holes. Li said, if this measure proves successful this year, it may be replicated in other parts of China.
