The “Free” Pet is Never Really Free!

I hope you all had a great Easter weekend. Thankfully, I got to spend a few precious days of quality time with my family and our pets. That is a rare occurrence in my world of animal rescue. This year Easter weekend brought with it no emergencies or new residents. It was a peaceful weekend, something I am always thankful for. Last year Easter weekend saw me adding two senior cats to our ever growing pride.

Now I know that I talk about dogs probably far more than I should, but in my defense I am a dog trainer and behaviorist. However I am sure the lack of cat content has not been lost on our feline loving members. That is why today we are going to discuss cats, and why there are so many of them in shelters all over North America.

Cats are literally a dime a dozen in my neck of the woods. There are feral colonies all over the city I live in. The local shelter is over run, and there are two or three cat rescue groups sharing the local Petsmart adoption centre.  Why are there so many homeless cats? The answer is simple, people don’t think they have to fix their cats. Cats are allowed to roam free, and inevitably females come home pregnant. The resulting litters of kittens are then usually given away to anyone who will take one. In a world like that where is the incentive to head to the shelter and pay to adopt a cat? Again the answer is simple, there is no incentive. People would rather take in a free kitten then pay the local shelter a couple of hundred bucks for a cat.

Free kittens are everywhere at this time of year. Yesterday I visited the shelter in a nearby town. When I walked in the door I was struck by the number of absolutely gorgeous cats housed in the cat adoption rooms. Beautiful healthy cats that have been waiting a long time for forever homes. “Dogs are flying out the door right now!” one volunteer worker told me. “The cats?” she continued, “they don’t move so well at this time of the year. People take in free kittens instead of visiting the shelter in search of a new feline companion.”

It is clear that the only way to combat the cat overpopulation problem is to encourage more people to adopt healthy vetted cats from shelters. One of the ways in which I tend to try to convince people that the shelter cat is the better option is to break down the cost of a free kitten. “The cost of a free kitten?” you say “But the kitten is free, there is no cost!”  But is a free kitten really free? Let us look at the cost of bringing a new “free”animal into your home.

People do not generally vet animals they plan to “give” away. Therefore when bringing a “free” pet home you must factor in the cost of a vet visit for the necessary vaccinations. When adopting a shelter cat those costs are included in the price. At the age of six months your “free” pet will need spay or neuter surgery, unless your community has a low cost/no cost spay and neuter clinic, the cost for this operation can be over $250.00. When you adopt an older shelter cat they are usually already sterilized so that cost is included in the price of adoption. If you are with me so far, you should be beginning to see that the free pet option isn’t really free.

When you adopt a shelter cat, you can be somewhat assured that they are in good health and all issues of medical concern have been dealt with. When you take in a free kitten health is a mystery, and as they usually have not been vetted before being rehomed there are no assurances that your new pet is optimally healthy. That “free” kitten could be a ticking time bomb of medical problems, but you have no way of knowing. Hmmm, is the shelter cat starting to sound like the better option?

So, if you are thinking that adding a cat to your family dynamic is something you want to do this spring, please visit your local shelter. There are hundreds of wonderful adoptable cats just waiting for a new friend like you to come and take them home. Let’s start to think about the feline residents of our local shelters, they need homes too!

Until Tomorrow Remember

BE THE CHANGE YOU SEEK!

Janette