ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Kurdish teacher has rented a house in Erbil to shelter stray cats which experience abuse and suffering on the streets of the Kurdish Region.

Msrikhan Mohammed, a teacher at a school in Erbil’s Pirmam, has been providing care for animals for the past ten years. 

“I loved cats and animals when I was a kid. Our house was in Pirmam when I was a student at Erbil’s College of Physical Education. I went home by bus every day and one day I found an injured baby fox in a very bad situation. People had hurt it. I picked it up and provided a full course of treatment and it grew in my house,” Mohammed told Rudaw on Saturday. 

The cub was shot dead later. 

Most cats in the Region are stray, and have to work hard on the daily to stay alive. They are often shooed away, beaten, hit with sticks and killed by cars. 

Mohammed has rented a house in Erbil’s Bastora where she keeps the stray cats at, providing them with food and water. She also looks after two injured dogs. 

“I have treated and cared for more than 60 stray cats in my house in Pirmam, but more than 14 of my cats died because they were poisoned. That’s why I decided to rent a house and take them in,” she said. 

Mohammed has so far treated and vaccinated at least 30 cats.