Up to 60,000,000 homeless cats

This is the estimated number of homeless cats roaming the US right now. Many were pets that the owners no longer wanted, so they were dumped somewhere. Even more so are second, third or, if they can live that long, fourth generation ‘feral’ or feral cats.

January and February are bad months at Cat Shelters. This is when the excitement of kitty as a Christmas present wears off and the reality of mass cleaning and daily feeding and training begins.

Estimates range from 4,000,000 to 14,000,000 cats euthanized in the US each year. That breaks my heart, but people who leave their unwanted kittens really pisses me off. What they do is cruel and ruthless, leaving helpless kittens or cats to fend for themselves in a harsh and dangerous environment.

And who pays for these shelters and the euthanasia of all these cats? You do. Even if you are not responsible for the problem.

Most citizens would never dream of abandoning a defenseless animal. It is those unscrupulous few, or consciences, who create this enormous problem.

Let’s talk about some numbers for a minute. Let the number of homeless feral cats equal 50,000,000. We will make 50% of them reproduce females. There are 25,000,000 cats that can give birth to two litters of an average of 5 kittens per year. That’s 10 kittens per cat each year for 25,000,000 breeding females. My calculator says there are an additional 250,000,000 feral kittens in the environment each year. So if half of them are female and they have 10 kittens per year plus the 25,000,000 females we started with… Unfortunately my calculator won’t go that high! In seven years, just ONE pair of breeding cats can produce 450,000 kittens.

This problem is massive. The destruction of the environment and the damage to native wildlife and fauna are staggering. Cats eat around 5% of their body weight each day. The diseases spread by these unfortunate animals infect countless cared for pets.

So what can be done. Some states have Trap, Neutral, Return programs. This does exactly what it says. They catch the feral cats, castrate them, and then return them to where they were found, as many of these feral cats have created colonies. This could be an excellent method of reducing the number of feral cats, but there are so many traps, so many people helping to catch these animals and in no way can they have much of an impact on that large number. Also, some vets refuse to neuter these cats because they don’t want them to go back outdoors, which is not a natural habitat for them. Other conservation groups say released animals can still decimate populations of birds and small reptiles and spread disease.

It costs more than money to slaughter animals and the people who are forced to do this day in and day out have a pretty rough time of it. Many work in shelters because they love animals, not because they want to kill them.

In Australia, there have been discussions about allowing pet stores to only sell neutered animals. The only people allowed to keep breeding cats must be registered breeders. Some counties have gone so far as to allow only neutered animals as pets. The jury is still out on this, but Australia has an estimated 12,000,000 feral cats. Many people try to take care of their ‘herd’ of feral cats by feeding them and making sure they are healthy. Some risk (and receive) injuries when caught and bathed or taken to a vet. Some states in the United States offer a bounty for feral cats.

In the small rural town where I live, some women got together and raised funds to sterilize cats for pet owners for free. The local vet did his part by charging only a minimal amount to cover his costs. In just a few years, these three women sterilized more than 400 cats at no cost to owners. Perhaps this is something that could be encouraged elsewhere.

This problem is ours. It is of our creation. The cats did not ask to be abandoned. It is up to us to do something about it. I don’t have the answer. I hope I have made some of you aware of this problem, made you think about your values. I don’t apologize if I’ve upset you.

If you have a cat, please tell me that it has been sterilized. Unless you intend to breed from it. And remember, a cat is for life. Often this will be up to 20 years. And if you love your cat, the love will be returned to you tenfold.

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