Report shows alarming number of cats being euthanized
Posted January 16, 2013 9:17 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – More than 60,000 cats were euthanized in Canadian shelters in 2011, according to a new report released by the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies.
“A Comprehensive Report on the Cat Overpopulation” is calling to have their pets spayed or neutered.
It also urges people who are thinking of getting a cat to adopt from a local animal shelter, instead of making a purchase at a pet shop.
The report says there are more than 10 million pet cats in Canada and in 2011, there were another 600,000 living in shelters. It also shows 60,000 of the shelter kitties were euthanized that year, six-times the number of dogs that were destroyed.
CFHS also says that only 44% of cats dropped off at shelters each year are later adopted. More than 37% of Canadian households have cats.
The report makes four recommendations:
• Maintain a set of comprehensive national statistics measured every two years to determine long-term solution efficiency and trending data. This data must include accurate estimates of the number of all stakeholders involved and project the correct number needed to adequately measure the current state of the cat population and the effectiveness of the solutions. As well, a common language across the animal welfare community should be agreed upon in order to standardize and compare data.
• Develop a national marketing campaign, integrated at the local level, to connect the potential 5 million adoptive homes with cats in shelters.
• Implement a spay/neuter public education campaign based on behavioural science with the goal of sterilization compliance in owned animals.
• Design a Homeless-at-Large and Feral cat population estimate tool using credible evidence-based approaches.
