Resources:
Cats, Wildlife & Disease:
https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cobi.13346
“Contrary to Loss and Marra's claims that the scientific consensus is consistent with their views that cats are a global threat to biodiversity, the actual scientific consensus is that cats can, in certain contexts, have suppressive population-level effects on some other species…”
https://brill.com/view/journals/soan/30/7/soan.30.issue-7.xml
“Both studies undermine the narrative that all cats everywhere are an existential threat to biodiversity and therefore ought to be “removed” from the landscape forthwith. More studies like the DC Cat Count are needed to establish context-sensitive evaluations of cats’ effects on native and non-native wildlife….”
Shelter Stats:
https://bestfriends.org/no-kill-2025/animal-shelter-statistics/arizona
“In 2021, nearly 4,569 dogs and cats were killed in animal shelters across Arizona, but together with your help, we’re changing that.”
https://www.aspca.org/helping-people-pets/shelter-intake-and-surrender/pet-statistics
“In the year 2023, the compassionate efforts of animal shelters and rescue organizations were evident as they provided refuge for over 6.5 million animals, with approximately 3.3 million cats and 3.2 million dogs seeking care and support.”
https://worldanimalfoundation.org/advocate/animal-shelter-statistics/
“The number of animals entering shelters continues to slightly increase each year since the pandemic, but is still 16% less than 2019. Dog intakes represented the majority of this increase…”
https://www.shelteranimalscount.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/FY-Q1-Q4-Report-FINAL.pdf
Tasmania Study: Catch & Kill Doesn't Work:
“Contrary to expectation, the relative abundance and activity of feral cats increased in the cull-sites, even though the numbers of cats captured per unit effort during the culling period declined. Increases in minimum numbers of cats known to be alive ranged from 75% to 211% during the culling period…”
Lost Cats:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4494319/
https://avmajournals.avma.org/view/journals/javma/230/2/javma.230.2.217.xml
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5789300/
https://europepmc.org/article/pmc/pmc8964341
“Multiple studies have now documented that cats are 10–50 times more likely to be reunited with their owners by returning home on their own or being found in the neighborhood of origin than through a call or visit to a shelter. This reality is reflected in the fact that only ~ 2% of cats admitted to US shelters are reunited with their owners…”
Shelters Make Cats Sick:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19782625/
“One study found that a change of housing induced herpesvirus shedding in ~18% of cats (Gaskell + Povey, 1977). Moving a cat from intake to stray to adoptions results in increased stress with each move, making it more likely to become sick.”
San Jose Shelter Study:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4217190/
“Study of the effect on shelter cat intakes and euthanasia from a shelter neuter return project of 10,080 cats from March 2010 to June 2014…In CY 2009, the San Jose shelter euthanized 8,466 cats, including 252 owner requested euthanasia…By the end of FY 2014, total cat euthanasia, including 111 owner requested euthanasia, declined to 1,954 of which 1,504 cats were determined to be unhealthy and untreatable…Additionally, it was found the number of dead cats picked up on the street declined 20%…”
Albuquerque Study:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5946139/
“The Impact of an Integrated Program of Return-to-Field and Targeted Trap-Neuter-Return on Feline Intake and Euthanasia at a Municipal Animal Shelter…Results at AAWD for 2016 reflected continued declines in feline intake (5078), euthanasia (361) and euthanasia rate (7.1%), and sustained increases in LRR (91.0%) adoption rate (67.4% of feline intake, based upon 3422 adoptions), and RTO rate (5.5% of feline intake, based upon 279 cats returned to their owners); moreover, the number of 3-1-1 calls for dead cats decreased again…”
Alachua County Animal Services Study:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090023314001841?via%3Dihub#bbib0045
“Effect of high-impact targeted trap-neuter-return and adoption of community cats on cat intake to a shelter. Shelter cat impoundment from the trap-neuter-return (TNR) target area (A) decreased 66% from the baseline year during the 2-year study period compared to a decrease of 12% in the non-target area (B). Shelter dog intake from the target area (A) decreased 36% from the baseline year during the 2-year study period compared to a decrease of 9% in the non-target area…”
Rethinking the Animal Shelter's Role in Free-Roaming Cat Management:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2022.847081/full
“There has been a tendency to assume that removal to animal shelters is a more effective method for management of free-roaming cats compared to TNR. This likely reflects the intuitive belief that removing a cat leads to the presence of one less cat in the environment, while sterilizing and returning a cat clearly does not reduce the population by one. However, this simplistic view fails to take into account what happens when density is reduced and immigration or breeding by remaining individuals is not prevented…”
Canada Veterinary Journal Study:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3552587/
“Descriptive epidemiology of upper respiratory disease and associated risk factors in cats in an animal shelter in coastal western Canada. By day 7, 29% of carriers were at risk of developing URD compared to 2.7% for non-carrier cats. By day 14, the risk had increased to 46% for carriers compared with 13% for non-carriers. This trend continued into week 3 with 55% of carriers versus 28% of non-carriers, and beyond 30 d with 76% of carriers versus 41% of non-carriers…”
Shelter workers & Compassion Fatigue, Depression & Suicide:
“Animal rescue workers have a suicide rate of 5.3 in 1 million workers — the highest suicide rate among American workers, and a rate shared only by firefighters and police offices, according to a recent study by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.”
Daily Cost of Cats in Shelters:
https://www.maddiesfund.org/estimating-the-cost-to-care-for-animals-at-austin-pets-alive.htm
“Not surprisingly, longer LOS has a correlation with higher cost of care. Results showed that the conditions resulting in the longest length of stay and highest cost of care were behavior and calici for cats, and distemper, behavior, and parvovirus for dogs.”
Early Weaning Increases Aggression & Stereotypic Behavior in Cats:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-11173-5
“…cats weaned before 8 weeks of age were significantly more likely to behave aggressively towards strangers than cats weaned at 12–13 weeks of age…”
Why Cats Might Scratch Where We Don’t Want Them To:
“…cats in a home with children were more likely to engage in high levels of problematic scratching. Scratching can be an outlet or response to environmental stressors, so it is possible that cats in homes with children scratch more as an outlet for stress. HOWEVER,…we must also consider that scratching is response to positive social interactions, such as those cats who scratch a “greeting” when we come home.…”
Cover vs. Uncovered Litter Boxes:
https://whatyourcatwants.com/what-does-the-science-say-about-cats-and-covered-litter-boxes
“In general, cats prefer larger litter boxes. In addition, cats prefer clean, frequently scooped boxes. To humans, out of sight may mean out of mind, and the reality is that a covered box is less likely to be scooped daily. A covered box is likely too small for most cats. Since most cats with covered litter boxes will not experience the conditions of the described study, we must be careful when we say that “the majority of cats do not have a preference over hooded versus non-hooded litter boxes.”
Why Do Some Cats Fetch:
https://whatyourcatwants.com/why-do-some-cats-fetch
“It is likely this behavior is part of the predatory sequence of behaviors. There are two parts to this behavior – the pursuit of the object when it is tossed, and the retrieval. Some cats seem to do both (the true fetchers), most cats will pursue moving objects (likely predatory behavior), and some cats will carry objects to home or their owner…”
Is Whisker Fatigue Real:
https://whatyourcatwants.com/whiskerstress
”To sum up, this study did not provide STRONG evidence for whisker stress, as there could be alternative explanations for the only finding that supported a preference in some cats for the WF bowls…”
Using Cones on Cats:
https://whatyourcatwants.com/coneofshame
“Hopefully this research will help increase awareness that e-collars are not necessarily necessary or helpful to maintaining companion animal welfare while helping them heal. People hate ‘em, our pets hate ‘em, it’s time to start taking the alternatives seriously!”
Restraining Cats:
https://whatyourcatwants.com/restraint
“It’s hard to argue with 20 years of proof that it’s not necessary for effective treatment of cats (when we tell the first year vet students that there are scruff-free cat clinics, it blows their minds!). But think of it this way – if aversive restraint techniques were just not allowed or available to you – what would you do instead?”
Declawing Cats is Horrific:
https://whatyourcatwants.com/declawing