It is not for nothing that Adopt-a-Shelter-Cat month has been positioned to occur during the summer months. This is the time when shelters throughout the country are coping with an influx of kittens, as well as the regular intake of adult cats of all ages, health conditions and temperaments. Consequently, the purpose of this special month is to alert the public to the reality behind its label: that millions of wonderful, adoptable cats are available in shelters, just waiting for the chance for a loving home which, unfortunately, may never come.
It’s estimated that there are now approximately 90 million owned cats in the U.S. (cats having replaced dogs as the most popular family pet), and 84% of these pets have been spayed or neutered. That’s the good news. Now let me give you some other not so positive feline facts:
• Only about 15% of those 90 million cats were adopted from shelters.
• The stray animal population in this country today is largely made up of cats.
• The majority of the millions of cats in shelters are unowned.
• More than 70% will be euthanized.
• 25,000 healthy cats are euthanized in shelters each day.
• Euthanasia in shelters is now the number one cause of cat death in the United States.
• Cats as a group receive less veterinary care than dogs, and are abandoned more often.
This is the tragic, but inescapable reality that as a society, we have failed to adequately address the preventable condition underlying these heartbreaking statistics: overpopulation.
What can we do to improve the overall state of cats in our communities and enhance their quality of life? At The San Francisco SPCA we address these issues through a multi-pronged approach:
• Spay/neuter is the bedrock of The SF/SPCA’s work and we offer low cost, and in some instances free, spay/neuter surgery for cats and dogs through our Spay/Neuter Clinic, which performs approximately 7,000 procedures each year. Since the 1970s, the Clinic has performed tens of thousands of these surgeries, so extrapolating from statistics that show that a fertile, female cat will have 1.4 litters per year with litters averaging 3 kittens per litter, it is clear the birth of hundreds of thousands of kittens has been prevented.
• At Maddie’s Pet Adoption Center we have implemented new adoption policies to find more homes for more cats more quickly. During the summer months, the height of kitten season, adopters are already offered a second kitten for half the price of the first. From now on, if individuals adopt one adult cat (over six months of age) they have the option to adopt a second one free of charge. In addition, our policy for seniors remains in place: the adoption fee is waived for individuals 62 and over who adopt a cat who is 3-years of age or over. These are all good reasons to adopt from a shelter, apart from the knowledge that a life has been saved.
• Through our LifeLinks program we bring cats (and dogs) from overburdened regional shelters where they face certain euthanization. In fiscal year 2005-2006, the LifeLinks program rescued 360 cats from out-of-county shelters.
• At The SF/SPCA we believe that feral cats deserve to be treated with respect and their lives protected. That means the continuation of our policy of Trap/Neuter/Return (TNR), which has proven to be the most humane and effective strategy for dealing with homeless cats. With the help of our Feral Cat Assistance Program, feral felines are trapped, brought to The SF/SPCA for sterilization (approximately 20,000 since 1993), vaccination and medical assistance, and then returned to their colonies under the watchful eye of dedicated volunteer caretakers. In this way the colony is monitored and any newcomers, either ferals or abandoned/stray domesticated cats, can be identified, managed, and if possible, returned to their owner/guardian, or placed for adoption.
• The SF/SPCA has been educating the community for many years about the necessity of good veterinary care for dogs and cats. Beside the necessity for spay/neuter, this means a yearly examination for pets to ensure that their immunizations are up to date and that they are in good health. A problem caught early can mean an enormous difference in outcome and expense.
• We’ve also emphasized the importance of keeping cats indoors. It has been estimated that a free-roaming cat has an average life span of three years, compared to 12 – 15 years for an indoor cat. Free-roaming cats are exposed to many dangers: cars, poisons, other animals, diseases, fleas and ticks, to name just a few. And of course, they add to feline overpopulation if they haven’t been altered.
• The SF/SPCA has spoken out urgently on other issues pertaining to cats. When a Bay Area corporation began the commercial cloning of cats, we took the position that there were already too many cats produced the old fashioned way to go to such extreme lengths to produce more. The Society was also concerned about the future health of these animals, many of whom died prematurely or were born with abnormalities that could lead to chronic pain and suffering. Eventually, the company closed down because the cloning process was not commercially viable due to low demand.
With the discovery in 2001 of a grave on the island of Cyprus containing the skeleton of a human and a cat, scientists and archaeologists have come to the conclusion that cats have been domesticated for at least 9,000 years, almost as long as dogs, who began cohabiting with humans about 12,000 years ago. After 9,000 years, during which time cats have run the gamut from being worshipped as gods or abominated as the incarnation of evil, it’s high time that we accorded them all the respect, dignity and protection that is their right.
