Les Chats du Mercantour

Association with a programme of sterilising stray cats in the villages of the Haute Tinee. They also have a number of kittens and cats available for adoption.

The association, Les Chats du Mercantour*, is a TNR (Trap/Neuter/Return) charity in the south of France that was initially started in 2006 by American ex-veterinary assistant, Leslie Frasier, in order to help her newly adopted village solve its out-of-control cat proliferation problem by spaying/neutering its stray cats. After appearing in the Nice Matin newspaper, word got around to the other villages in the mountain valleys of the Alpes Martimes. Then the Fondation 30 Millions d’Amis heard about us and made a television documentary about the association in 2011 and we started getting calls from all over the region from individuals and towns asking for our help. The documentary is on our homepage (if any of you out there would volunteer to put English subtitles on it, we’d greatly appreciate it!).

Along with TNR, we also rescue hundreds of cats and kittens and find them families through adoption. We do not have a “shelter” where potential adopters can come see the cats for adoption, our rescued, sociable cats are cared for by foster families until we can find them their forever home. Our foster families are primarily on the coast in towns all over the French Riviera.

Most of our sterilized, stray cats live in colonies or in individual’s gardens and are fed and cared for thanks to the volunteers who feeds them and our sponsors who allow us to supply food and veterinary care, when needed.