Cats are the most popular pet in Canada, with 37% of households having one or more. Dogs come in second at 32% of households.

Yet cats are also treated as disposable. 41% of owners let their cats roam outdoors alone, exposing them to risks such as cars, diseases, parasites, fights, and even malicious people. Cats are traded on Kijiji and abandoned or surrendered at alarming rates. According to the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies (CFHS) Animal Shelter Statistics 2014 – which doesn’t even include all of the shelters in the country – 85,392 cats were admitted in 2014. 27% of those cats – almost 25,000 – were surrendered by their owners. An additional 53% were strays. Some of those strays were no doubt lost, or born feral, but some of them were simply abandoned. In comparison, only 38,630 dogs entered shelters in 2014, despite their lower numbers.

In their report, Cats in Canada, the CFHS says, “Cats are less likely than dogs to receive veterinary care, to have permanent identification, to be reunited with their owner, or to be adopted by a new family if lost or abandoned. Furthermore, cats are twice as likely to be surrendered to shelters and more likely to be euthanized.”

So are cats the most popular pet because we love our cats, or because many people take the responsibility of cat-ownership too lightly?

Perhaps more importantly, how do we convince people to take responsibility for their cat, or not get one at all? If you’ve got an answer to that question, we are very interested to hear it — email us at info@catsandbirds.ca.