In a small, indistinct house in Jakarta’s southern districts, a woman in full scrubs is silently and efficiently desexing an anaesthetised cat.
Next to the table, another four cats wearing nappies lie in a row, their bellies shaved and exposed with a freshly stitched wound, sleeping off their anaesthesia.
This is the world of Indonesia’s underground vets, working to desex as many cats as possible, to help stall the explosive growth of felines on the streets of big cities.
“Regularly trapping and neutering cats will help maintain the population number for about two years, but if we don’t do it, the cat number will explode,” said Vivi Sebayang from Rumah Steril, an organisation that…