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For more than five years, four neighbors have been caring for a feline colony of 22 cats on the plot located at number 17-19 of Avenida de Córdoba, in the district of Usera. According to the Law of Protection of Companion Animals of the Community, their care corresponds to the City Council. However, cats seem to have their days numbered since the Consistory gave this municipal land for 75 years to a French religious association.
It is a land whose cession, held in August last year, was surrounded by controversy from the outset. PSOE and Más Madrid spoke out against, demanding the construction of buildings for public services, and the neighbors began a collection of signatures in Change.org hoping to paralyze the assignment.
The space was requested by the Community of the Lamb, Hermanitas del Cordero, through the lawyer Rafael Martínez Tojo. The letter of application stated that the religious association did not have its own monastery and that it temporarily occupied a centre for the development of its activity. "Having become aware of the municipal ownership of a plot located in the Almendrales neighborhood (...) express their interest in it, as a possible definitive location" for the construction of a "small urban monastery".
A "small monastery" that, according to the municipal file, will be a temple of 2,733.82 square meters of plant. It will have two heights, a porch, a cloister and a projected cost of 1,973,485.11 euros that the Community of the Lamb assures will finance with the contribution of its parishioners.
The Community of the Lamb, beneficiaries of this cession of municipal land for three quarters of a century, is a French religious association that calls itself mendicant and claims to live in "voluntary poverty".
Once the transfer of the property took place, Juan Luis Ventura and his three companions, who have been paying thousands of euros out of their own pockets for six years for the feeding and care of the cats, found themselves with a surprise.
"They left us a contact telephone number at the door of the fenced farm, we called and the nuns told us that thank you very much for the services provided but they prevented us from continuing to take care of the colony," says Ventura, who recalls that "according to the law of the Community of Madrid, those responsible for this colony of cats are the City Council and Madrid Salud".
One of the cats of the feline colony rooted in the farm of municipal ownership.
Ventura denounces that the Consistory does not lend itself to finding a solution. "I have been chasing Madrid Salud since December, we have offered to coordinate with the religious, but the nuns have prevented me from continuing to take care of the cats. The Municipal Department of Veterinary Services did an impact study and told us that cats cannot be moved and have given a series of recommendations for the cats to remain there, in a small part of the land owned by the municipality, but the transferees [the French religious community] do not want to. "
"I have written to all the parliamentary groups but they have only listened to me VOX, which recommended me to take the matter to Cibeles and Más Madrid." The spokesman of Maestre's party in Usera has denounced the situation on his Twitter account assuring that "Almeida has given free a public plot of 3,500 m2 in Usera to a religious sect. In that plot there is a feline colony that has been receiving the care of volunteers within the Feline Colony Management Protocol.
Desperate, Ventura seeks a solution for the 22 cats he has been caring for for years while, in his opinion, the Consistory and the religious wash their hands. "The City Council is obliged by law to watch over that colony of cats and not me, who do it for the love of animals."
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