This is the notes from my preso yesterday…
Hi I’m Michelle Williamson. And I’m here today to make a confession.
I am what is often referred to as ‘the problem’.
I’m a semi-owned cat carer. I look after a community cat.
But I’m not alone.
A 2009 study into Victorian cat owners revealed one in four people are feeding a cat other than their own regularly.
In the same year a study in South Australia showed that 53% of cat owners in the state, were feeding a second cat that wasn’t theirs.
This is an enormous number of people, who give homeless cats a bit of care.
And as a result, unfortunately, tend to be major contributors to the shelter cat overpopulation problem.In fact, based on current owned cat populations, more than a million people could be feeding a cat right now, who doesn’t belong to them.
In response to the discovery of these behaviours, authorities and welfare groups created campaigns asking people to take action.
In Victoria it was called the ‘Who’s for Cats’ program. In South Australia it was called ‘Homeless Cats SA’
And the action people were asked to take?
Bring those cats you’re feeding into the shelter.
Who’s for Cats had a central character called ‘Dave’ who was portrayed as a hero for dropping two cats off at the pound.
‘Homeless Cats SA’ referred to unowned cats in literature as a ‘plague’ and advised people to call council about any homeless cats in their area.
All roads leading to the shelter. Which is basically the opposite approach of what we’ve been discussing here this week.
We don’t want these cats – who are otherwise healthy and have a regular source of food – to be entering shelters.
Cats get stressed and sick in shelters. They are often killed in shelters. And untame cats are nearly always killed in shelters.
It’s a bad approach, if less killing of cats is your goal.
And what is this approach actually costing us?
If we were to assume the oft-quoted ‘100,000 cats die in shelters each year’ to be correct.
And if we were to assume it costs in the vicinity of $50 to:
– capture
– transport
– assess
– hold
– feed
– clean
– handle
– inject
and kill each of these impounded cats, the resources we’re pumping into the current system of killing 100,000 cats… is around five million dollars a year.What kind of services could we offer the community for five million dollars a year?
How many cats could five million dollars a year desex?
Five million dollars per year – that is the opportunity cost of our current model, which refuses to support community cat carers.
But all of this is just numbers.
There is another cost. To the individual cat lover and the individual cat.
This is Other Cat. My Community Cat
He is desexed and microchipped to my address.He will never be a housecat, but he still has a life that is valuable and should be valued.
There is absolutely no future for an untame cat, like Other Cat, in a shelter. He would be killed there.
And we should be incredibly sorry, that this is how the system we’ve created, deals with cats like him.
We tend to forget that up until the invention of kitty litter fifty years ago, ALL cats lived outdoors in the way that Other Cat does.
People fed them and cared for them and that was just how it was done.
Ironically, the biggest risk to a cat’s life TODAY is being ‘rescued’ from this life, by an animal shelter.Taking a couple of million cats off the streets and starting to call them ‘pets’ was never going to do anything to stablise the free-roaming population.
And killing 100,000 cats a year in the name of ‘animal welfare’ makes absolutely no sense, and continues to do nothing to improve outcomes for cats.
We can keep a million cats out of the shelter TODAY by simply changing our message.
‘Caring for a community cat? Let us help you, help them.’
We have an army of people who
– love cats enough to provide for a stray,
– who are already activated in a caring role
– and who we know LOVE cats.We simply need to tap into that love
and help them, help us, keep cats out of our shelters.We need to redirect our resources into providing the services needed for them to keep their community cat in a responsible way.
Community cat carers and semi-owners – these people are our allies and we need all the help we can get, if we want to Get 2 Zero.
After I presented, an animal management rep came up and said to me,
“It doesn’t cost me fifty dollars to impound, hold and kill a cat. It costs me $240.”
That would make the opportunity cost of our current system – the one that costs the lives of 100,000 cats annually – in the vicinity of $20,000,000.
Twenty million. Each year. That could be being used for proactive programs to keep cats out of shelters.
Still think that new law that activates animal management to start impounding cats, is a good use of resources?
Hi Michelle, I can’t see that you are part of the “problem”. Your community cat is de-sexed and well cared for and can do what cats do like catching rodents etc.
Trap-Neuter-Release is an excellent approach, killing cats in pounds and shelters is not. In many states cat owners are now required to pay a registration fee for their cats. As long as this money is used for killing cats I will not voluntarily pay my registration fee. For the trap-neuter-release approach I would even donate on top of the fee.
I totally agree with this but I do not think that “one cap fits all” I think Banjup Rescue and others like them see a totally different side of the spectrum. two examples is On a continual basis they are called to take a population of cats that have bred into a colony of up to 62 cats whereby half a pregnant. The current one is last count 32 cat population at a factory that is closing down. If they didnt respond they call the pest controllers in. So what we have been doing is to campaign via business groups to ask that when they find one cat coming please call a non kill rescue group. But last year I did a small survey and over 300 industrial sites in Perth had a colony of cats because they had the food source, they did not sterilise them they did not take them to a vet when they were injured (some where even running them over with the fork lift and others trapping them and downing them in wheelie bins). But not one of them wanted to be responsible for the cats.
Brilliant presentation. The financial implications alone, of how many cats could be desexed with that money, are astounding. Let alone how much happier the community would be knowing that cats like Other Cat are safe and have the opportunity to have a life.
Cristy – Do you not have laws that protect animals from cruelty – If I found out a company did such a thing I would call the authorities, Peta then tell every cat lover I know and stop putting money into their coffers – money talks.
We have cats in our pallet yard who are “de-sexed” and allowed to roam about and catch rodents and snakes – They are working kitties and their food is tax deductible as a business expense Our pallet cats are an Eco-freindly pest control that increase the safety of our pallet yard by catching and killing poisonous snakes thereby preventing them from being accidentally delivered to our customers. restaurants and fed store are also on the list of business cats can serve – Well fed healthy kitties whose population is kept stable via sterilization are better workers than half starved sick ones that are burdened by procreation and overt stress from unwarranted cruelty – They are kept feral so they don;t approach customers or neighbors – They stay hidden during the day when every one is there and come out at night and work the night shift.
Michele Williams – excellent presentation, keep up the good work. There are studies done that offer good evidence that trap neuter return works – http://www.alleycat.org/tnrstudies.