Cats in the San Vero Milis marina, volunteers say, "They're not invisible."

In the seaside villages of San Vero Milis, the cat invasion continues unabated, a phenomenon that's difficult to stop. The only way to stem the problem is for the municipality to recognize the feline colonies.

At that point, the local health authority can intervene with free sterilizations. A few months before the upcoming municipal elections that will elect the new mayor of San Vero Milis, two cat lovers—Andrea Atzori, who manages the Su Pallosu colony, the area's premier tourist attraction, and Daniela Pintor, who for years has cared for all the stray cats in the San Vero Milis marina at her own expense, have decided to take stock of the phenomenon.

One of the many examples of "bad" administrative management of the San Vero Milis marine area is that of animal rights policies, particularly for cats. They say: "The presence of cats in S'Anea Scoada, Putzu Idu, Mandriola, Sa Rocca Tunda, and Su Pallosu is currently estimated at approximately a thousand cats and hundreds of actual feline colonies. Over the past twenty years, all municipal administrations have proven incapable of managing the situation. How can anyone fail to understand that sterilizing cats is the only way to protect birds, wildlife, and the felines themselves through public sterilizations at feline colonies formally recognized by the municipality?"

Cat lovers also remember that from Bosa to Cabras, passing through Oristano, there are now over one hundred feline colonies recognized by the municipal administrations.

"San Vero Milis, on the other hand, is currently stuck at zero," they say. "Zero feline colonies recognized by the municipal administration: zero sterilizations. Yet, even at the national and international levels, there are many virtuous examples where local governments have understood the possibility of transforming cats from a problem into a resource. Two examples stand out: the municipality of Brolo, in Piedmont on Lake Orta, or, more famously, Istanbul, in Turkey. Istanbul, the international city of cats, a true global tourist attraction, considered an integral part of the city's culture and life, respected, fed, and protected by its residents, with historical roots in the Ottoman Empire. In short, it takes very little, but a lot of common sense, to reverse the trend. It all comes down to a simple administrative act: the recognition of all the feline colonies actually existing in the marinas by the Municipality, which allows cat lovers to have the felines sterilized by the Local Health Authority, at no cost to the local administration, since the funds involved are already allocated." And who knows if the trend will change.