Fourteen million cats are destroyed each year

Yes, fourteen million cats are destroyed each year (in the United States) according to the author of an article on feral cats on the seacoastonline.com. I had thought that about 2.2 million feral cats were euthanized each year in the United States. Maybe the figure has gone up. Can someone confirm the true figure. The author also says that there are 60 million feral cats in the USA (src: HSUS - a good source). Apparently, as far as I can remember, there are about 80 million domestic cats, in homes, in America. So that means the feral cat population is similar to the homed domestic cat population.


Feral cat - photo by Sister72 - this photo was taken Aug 19th 2007. I wonder if this cat is still alive?

On that basis, is it fair to make out an argument that the domestication of the cat is now beginning to fail, where once it was a success? The idea behind domestication is that human and cat gain out of it. It is meant to be mutually beneficial. But if one party to the arrangement, i.e. people, are killing 14 million of the other party to the arrangement each year, it cannot be said that the arrangement is mutually beneficial, can it?

Tell me, please, what you think.