Hieronder een interview met Ian voor PeoplePets.

Vampire Diaries star Ian Somerhalder is all about cats —not bats — in his belfry.

“I have three cats in my loft in Atlanta,” Somerhalder told PEOPLEPets.com at Spike TV’s Scream 2010 Awards on Oct. 16 in Los Angeles. “I literally wake up and there’s just fur everywhere. It’s so awesome.”

“They’re all very different,” Somerhalder said of his furry roomies’ backstories. “One is a feral cat from Hawaii who grew up in the jungle, another one is a rescue from a dungeon in New York and the other one’s from Canada.”

The actor has recently become so interested taking on the problem of feral cat overpopulation that he’s launching a foundation with the St. Tammany Humane Society in Lousiana. Through the foundation, Somerhalder wants to help control the situation without causing ecological after-effects.

“We’re allocating a very specific amount of money to funding research for sterilization drugs,” Somerhalder said. “[Once the drug] becomes species-specific, hopefully, in two decades there will be no problem.”

Somerhalder attributes his passion for animals to his upbringing. He and his family members have more than 10 pets between them. Accordingly, his work is motivated “just [by] my love of animals,” he said. “I’ve had them my entire life.”

Read more about animal-loving celebrities on PEOPLEPets.com:
Lea Michele’s Next Rescue Mission: Carriage Horses
John Legend: Nothing Frazzles My Mellow Bulldog