00:01They're everywhere. Basking by metro stations, darting across roadways,
00:07stalking around food stalls. Stray cats, born and raised on the streets of Jakarta.
00:13And every year, every month, there are more and more of them.
00:17It may sound like a cute problem to have, but the UN ranks Indonesia's capital as the world's most populous
00:23city.
00:24And run-ins with people don't always have the feline friends landing on their feet.
00:31There are too many cats here, so they end up dying in incidents involving motorbikes.
00:37Stray cats live rough lives. Hunger, disease, fleas and fighting are daily dangers, not to mention the traffic.
00:45The cats may suppress rodent populations, but they also devastate local wildlife like birds and reptiles.
00:53Experts estimate a million and a half strays are roaming Jakarta.
00:56And without intervention, there will be far more in a short time.
01:01They keep mating. They keep delivering babies.
01:05And the number of the population is increasing. Not doubling, but multiplying. Exponential, I would say.
01:17Carolina Fajar's organization is trying to claw back those numbers.
01:21Let's Adopt Indonesia tries to find homes for the kitties, but their mission has moved towards a more sustainable model.
01:28Catch, sterilize and release.
01:30It's part of a wider push by the Jakarta government and local NGOs to humanely avert a looming cat-tastrophe.
01:40Besides the free sterilization program run by the government, many animal welfare actors and members of the public are now
01:47willing to pay for sterilizations themselves.
01:50Cats are highly regarded creatures in the world's most populous Muslim country.
01:54Seen as fastidious, intelligent and protective, they're widely kept as pets, and people often feed their neighborhood strays.
02:01Some consider them good omens.
02:05Cats are there to neutralize negative auras and to cheer you up.
02:10Let's Adopt Indonesia say they spayed and neutered nearly 2,300 cats in 2025.
02:16It may just be a scratch on the surface, but with sustained efforts by citizens and authorities, Jakarta is working
02:22to put its stray cat problem in the bag.
02:25Chris Maul and Jonathan Kaplan for Taiwan Plus.
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