Bermuda Feline Assistance Bureau (BFAB) representative Valerie Sherwood spoke to Hamilton Rotarians this week about the organisation, which was established in 1992 to humanely control and manage Bermuda's feral cat population.

The organisation is facing a financial crisis, Ms Sherwood told Rotarians, operating at a loss each month. BFAB formed because there was a growing population, between 5,000 and 10,000, of uncared for cats in 1990 and many were being abused.

Ms Sherwood said: "BFAB has fixed more that 16,000 cats — about 1,000 a year for 16 years, which has resulted in about 50,000 less, unwanted kittens being born. They also treat cats with other medical concerns while at the veterinarian's offices.

"Cats which have been fixed by BFAB can be identified as having a notch in the left ear or the tip removed during their surgery, to prevent a multiple trips to the vet."

Ms Sherwood said that $175,000 per year is needed to maintain the work that they are doing in controlling the cat population as spaying and neutering cost $85 for males and $150 for females.

"We have operated a community service for 16 years, pretty much always at a deficit, and that deficit is getting worse as now we are essentially underwriting spays and neuters for the public's cats, which is beyond our original mandate. We are consistently running in a $20,000 deficit in any given month. So we are in crisis financial mode."

Ms Sherwood said that most of the cat's fixed by BFAB live in colonies and are regularly fed and stay healthy.

"If BFAB stopped operating tomorrow, you would see population growth of cats in a very short time," she said. "There would be more aggressive behaviour of more unfixed cats, and more cats looking emaciated which would reflect poorly on our tourism image."

To donate or find out more information on BFAB you can call 291-1737.