In the UK, cat abandonments are a third up from last year

Cats Protection - described as the UK's leading cat welfare charity - has revealed that there has been a 34% increase in cat abandonments this year, 2024, compared to last year. The video below starts off with that statement and is part of their appeal for funding to cover the rising costs of cat care after they have supported and helped 184,000 cats last year.

They say that on average cat spent 39 days in their care before being rehomed.

In the first half of 2024 veterinary treatment at Cat Protection cost £50,000. Remarkably, while they were filming their Christmas appeal for donations a cat was abandoned on the set. The cat was left at the centre and discovered by their Head of Clinical Services who was there for the filming. They named her Crumpet and she is now up for adoption. A reminder of how often people abandon cats in the UK and elsewhere.

Of course, the longer that cats are in their care the more expensive it is to care for them. And although the report I'm reading doesn't state this, I suspect that the problem is at 'both ends'. What I mean is there are more abandonments as stated - considerably more as it happens - and I suspect, too, that there are fewer adopters which means the cats stay longer within the protection of Cat Protection.

And this must come down to financial stress within the homes of many British families. This is probably due to post-Covid conditions when there was high inflation. And the general picture in the UK is one of the country under financial stress.

There is no money left to spend as it was all spent on Covid. The coffers are empty. The national debt equals the GDP of the country which I think the first time in the country's history or at least since World War II.

The current Chancellor is looking to manipulate the accounts to see whether she can find ways to borrow more money. The picture is dire to be honest.

Here are some reasons for the increase in feline abandonments.

The 30% increase in cat abandonments in the UK last year, as reported by Cats Protection, is largely attributed to several socio-economic factors that have put more strain on cat owners. Here are some key reasons behind this spike:

1. Cost of Living Crisis: With inflation and rising costs of basic goods and services, many households are struggling to afford essentials, let alone pet care expenses. Veterinary bills, pet food, and other necessities have become less affordable, leading some owners to make the difficult decision to give up their pets.

2. Increased Housing Instability: More people are renting due to high home ownership costs, and some landlords impose restrictions on pets. With more frequent moves or evictions in the rental sector, many cat owners face situations where they can’t bring their pets along, leading to more surrenders.

3. Impact of Pandemic Adoptions: During COVID-19 lockdowns, there was a surge in pet adoptions as people sought companionship. However, as routines normalized, some found themselves unprepared for the long-term commitment or unable to maintain pet care amidst life changes, such as returning to in-office work.

4. Veterinary Care Accessibility: Veterinary fees have increased, and some people are facing long wait times or challenges accessing pet care. Financial barriers in accessing routine or emergency care have contributed to owners feeling unable to care for their pets properly.

5. Lack of Awareness about Support Options: Many pet owners don’t know that there are charities and organizations that can help with pet food or veterinary care during financial hardship. Without knowledge of these resources, some may feel that abandonment is their only choice.

Cats Protection, along with other animal welfare organizations, is advocating for better awareness and support systems for pet owners. They hope that increased assistance and affordable pet care resources can help prevent future surges in abandonments.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also, sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. And, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable. Finally, (!) I often express an OPINION on the news. Please share yours in a comment.

Long-distance bus traveller leaves their cat at bus station and jumps on

The story comes from Halifax, UK. A unnamed person with a black-and-white cat had planned to travel on a long-distance bus from Halifax in the north of England to London in the south. 

The abandoned cat now named London abandoned at Halifax, UK bus station and rescued as there was a rescue centre over the road! Image: Halifax Courier.

According to the reports they had booked their seat and had a ticket but had not made arrangements for their cat to accompany them on the bus.

The driver appears to have refused to accept their cat and they jumped on the bus themselves and left their cat at the bus station. It is as straightforward as that apparently.

Animal advocates will find their behaviour shocking but they will also know that cat abandonment in its various guises happens a lot. It is the first time I have bumped into this variation.

Sadly it demonstrates a rather careless or callous attitude to cat caregiving but we don't know the full circumstances. There may be some mitigating circumstances but that said it is still unsatisfactory as there was a good alternative to raw abandonment.

The cat was rescued partly because just over the road from the bus station is a rescue centre! Brilliant and David Aitken-Alexander, deputy manager at the Halifax animal centre, said the following:

“As we’re just across the road from the bus station it was probably the first place the kind member of staff thought of when they realised that London had been left behind, and we were pleased to be able to help.

“We were told the owner had brought her to the bus station, but hadn’t booked a ticket for her to travel, so they took off but left her behind in her carrier.

“London hasn’t let this unpleasant experience affect her at all though, she’s settled into cattery life straight away.

"She's a beautiful, confident, friendly and chatty little lady, who entertains everyone here with her funny little ways.

“We’re hopeful we’ve already got a wonderful new home lined up for her, so it’s only been a short stop with us, although we have lots of other cats who equally deserve a happy ending - some of whom have been with us considerably longer than London - and we’d encourage anyone who is thinking of welcoming a cat into their family to visit our website.”

An excellent ending. Lucky though. Many abandoned cats are not so lucky. This cat has a nice new home I suspect.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also, sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. And, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable. Finally, (!) I often express an OPINION on the news. Please share yours in a comment.

12 men capture escaped or abandoned pet caracal. Now at sanctuary.

The caracal is one of those medium-sized wild cat species that has a temperament predisposed to being tamed and become a pet of sorts which is why throughout ancient history they were pets in the countries like India and today in the US there are some caracal pets living in homes. There is a famous pet caracal in Latvia where the cat has become fat. It is very sad to see.

RELATED: Meet Pumba, the fat, pet caracal of Latvia who wants to escape.

Click this link to see why caracals care not pets at all. You end up living with a tame (to a certain extent) wild cat which alters your life totally and in many cases messes up your life to the point where you have to get rid of the animal which is why sometimes caracals and servals are literally abandoned onto the streets. This is what people think happened to the caracal in the video above.

The caracal is so unsuited to being a pet. They have to be confined to the home which means they want to escape as their natural home range will be perhaps 20 square kilometres. Being in a home will be like being in a cage for the caracal. They want out. 

There are all kinds of complications to living with a caracal such as diet. The problem is that some people are very attracted understandably to the exotic appearance of this cat.  And people unlike animals are fascinated with appearance. I want one is the mantra. And common sense tends to disappear out of the window when you feel like that and are in the mood to 'get one'.

There are a lot of legal issues too in owning a caracal which can be complicated. It depends on where you live if it is illegal or legal to own one. Or you might need a license which means inspections etc.

Living with wild cat hybrids is also problematic. And also it is bad for wildlife conservation to live with wild cats as it reduces them to human objects to possess. They need to live natural lives in the wild.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also, sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. And, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable. Finally, (!) I often express an OPINION on the news. Please share yours in a comment.

Cubans leave their pets behind as they migrate in record numbers

The video gives a good insight into what is going on in Cuba regarding pet abandonment when their owners migrate to Florida, USA. It seems that a lot of them leave their pets behind and they do this perhaps not because of carelessness but because it costs too much to take them with them. 

Transporting an animal from Havana to Miami through a specialised agency can cost up to US$1200 including medical examinations and the flight. And since September, pet owners have had to pay an additional US$1300 to comply with a legal obligation of quarantine.

The average monthly salary in the state sector in Cuba is about $21. A tiny salary by American standards. And it appears that looking after a companion animal in Cuba is pretty well untenable financially because a 20 kg bag of imported dog food can cost up to $70 and a visit to the vet about $10.

The migration exodus from Cuba to America and other countries is apparently enormous. The gross domestic product in Cuba fell by 2% in 2023 and there is rampant inflation. There are food and fuel shortages. No surprise, then, that Cubans want to get out of the country and are forced to leave their pets behind.

This leaves a very large burden upon animal rescue organisations within Cuba. They do have animal welfare laws in Cuba and a degree of animal welfare activism which took shape in 2018 it appears because the Internet was widely accessible at that time.

The animal rights activists encouraged the government to pass a long-awaited animal welfare law which is nice to see but animal welfare campaigners say that it is not enough. One of these people believe that animal abandonment is "the worst form of animal abuse". I believe that there is poor enforcement of these laws making them ineffective.

And, as you know, he says that "the increase in migration has resulted in more pets being abandoned". And there has been a "loss of values" in Cuba because of the deepening economic crisis.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also, sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. And, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable. Finally, (!) I often express an OPINION on the news. Please share yours in a comment.

Mystery of the two dead Sphynx cats on the side of a road

NEWS AND COMMENT - UK: News media are reporting on a sad and mysterious discovery of two dead Sphynx cats, one male and one female, in a field not far from a road. On the other side of the road there was a red cat carrier in which there were cat faeces. The cats were micro-chipped but there were no details except that they were of Romanian origin. It appears to me that the details were erased.

The cats were found by a dog walker who reported the discovery to the RSPCA who are mystified as to what happened

There was no sign of trauma so the cats were not killed by being hit by something. We have to speculate and I sometimes like to speculate.

This is a fictional image of male and female SPHYNX cats. I can't publish the picture of the dead cats on this website as it might breach Google Adsense's policy rules.

Abandonment

To me, this would point to an informal Romanian cat breeder breeding hairless cats namely the Sphynx cat in their home in the UK because they are valuable and you can make quite a lot of money selling Sphynx cats.

I would further speculate that the breeding wasn't working out very well. Perhaps the cats became ill. The female cat had bad teeth but it wasn't possible to determine her age.

I would suggest that they were abandoned by this breeder and the microchip details erased as a consequence. They would appear to have been alive when they were abandoned but that might not be the case. They might have died at the breeder's home and put in a cat carrier that already had faeces in it.

Either that or they were alive in a cat carrier and trapped in it for a while and died when they escaped from the carrier. They were not attacked by a predator. They appear not to have been hit by a vehicle. They might have died of exposure as they are hairless after all with no protection from their coat and it's been pretty wintry, very wet and cold.

They were found on Saturday, March 16 in Cambridgeshire, UK. The bodies were near the road between Balsham to Hildersham High Street in the area of Samworth Close.

The bottom line is that they must've been abandoned

And they must have died within the ownership of an individual or perhaps sometime after they were abandoned. That I think is the logical assessment but I would welcome somebody else's views on this.

It is the first time I have read a cat new story of this nature. It is incredibly sad. It's in fact rather horrific to be honest.

Photo

I can't show the photograph of the bodies because I have a feeling that advertisers on this website won't like them and they would object to it. Google AdSense would also object to it possibly and notify me of a breach of their policy which I don't like to hear about.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

American families dump pets as costs surge

NEWS AND COMMENT: Although some shelters have quite definitely gone against the grain in terms of having too many cats and dogs to rehome [check out the empty shelter], in general, The Times reports that US families are dumping pets as the cost to keep them has become untenable. This is mainly due to inflation and lack of proper long-term budgeting, I believe.

The Times reports that American animal shelters are at their most overcrowded in years. The reason? Fears over the economy. And the end of boom times when many dogs and cats were adopted during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

I feel (I hope not harshly) that many people adopted dogs and cats who shouldn't have. This was impulse adoption without really doing due diligence to figure out the costs and even more importantly to check out the health of the animal that they were adopted. 

That last point particularly applies to the French Bulldog which is one breed which is being dumped on shelters faster than many other breeds. Clearly the owners have found out how expensive they can be to take care of.

RELATED: The French bulldog money pit and dogflation.

However, many adoptions were carried out responsibly. Many people relinquishing their companion animals have lived with them for a long time. It's be tough for some to consider relinquishing their pets.

However, according to the Shelter Animals Count, there are an estimated 250,000 more companion animals in shelters this Christmas then there were over the same period last year.

And it appears that many if not most kennel operators say that they are in crisis. Their facilities were already overcrowded before the Christmas festivities.

As mentioned there was a sharp rise in pet ownership during the pandemic. One in five households in America had a companion animal according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

There are fears over the economy in America and the rising cost of living. The cost of owning a pet is out of reach for many. They decided to abandon their animals.

Kim Alboum, of the Bissell Pet Foundation, an animal welfare organisation, said that "The economy right now is really challenging for a lot of families. And with the housing crisis, people are losing their homes and our having to downsize or move in with others. And this is a recipe for disaster for people that have larger dogs."

The Times reports that shelters are experiencing a big influx of puppies in particular including those of the French Bulldog breed as mentioned. There's been a period of inflation recently in America resulting in vets and pet product businesses raising their prices making it even more expensive to be a pet owner.

I'm told that veterinary prices jumped by 9% from November 2022-November 2023 according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics. Pet food costs rose by 5.6% over the same period.

Sarah Barnett runs an animal shelter in Philadelphia. She says that she has seen hard economic times which has challenged pet owners financially.

She said that people are losing their jobs have to decide between putting food on their table or feeding their companion animal. They've been left with few options.

Obviously, many people giving up their companion animals have had a very long term and good relationships with them. And I agree with Sarah Barnett in that not all people self-indulgently adopted cats and dogs during the pandemic. 

Lesson?

The story really highlights a very valuable point namely that looking after a companion animal properly is expensive. You can't do it properly on a shoestring. Perhaps the first stage in the adoption process is to check your budget, work out the maths, and make sure you maximise the chances that you can and will be able to afford to look after your new friend to a good standard for the remainder of their lives.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Are these the two women who dumped two cats at a pet store in Dewsbury, UK?

NEWS AND COMMENT: Remarkably, it appears that a couple of women dumped a couple of cats in a carrier which was taped up at the outlet of a well-known chain of pet stores called Pets at Home in the UK. This particular store is located in Dewsbury.

The cats were frightened but unharmed and they been taken by the RSPCA to their hospital, Greater Manchester Animal Hospital, for a check-up and routine deworming and de-fleaing treatments.

CCTV footage from the store has been passed to the RSPCA which shows a couple of women entering the store with the carrier at 3:06 PM and leaving within just minutes later at 3:09. In very much looks like that these are the people who dumped the cats. Here is the pic:

Are these the two women who dumped two cats at a pet store in Dewsbury, UK? Image: Pets at Home CCTV.

It is quite unusual if not rare to put faces to people who abandon cats in this kind of way. There are many ways to abandon domestic cats. It's unusual to abandon cats at a large pet store but I guess their thinking was that the cats would be found quite quickly and then taken by a rescue group to a vet and then be rehomed. That must have been there thinking actually.

So, perhaps we have to give them some credit for the fact that they didn't dump the cats on a quiet road in the countryside somewhere where they might have died quite quickly bearing in mind the sub-zero temperatures overnight in the UK at the moment.

The carrier was sealed up with tape. The cats apparently were healthy and in good condition. But neither were micro-chipped.

Although unlikely that anybody using the store will read this post, if you know anything about this incident then please contact the RSPCA on their appeals line number on 0300 123 8018.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Flat-faced Persians bought for social media 'likes' are being abandoned

The title comes from The Telegraph which I can't read because you have to subscribe nowadays to this online newspaper. This, by the way, is a growing trend. The online newspapers simply aren't making enough money through advertising but I don't think people will subscribe to them in sufficient numbers.

Anyway, I digress because I know what The Telegraph is talking about even though I cannot read their article. It's a well-known phenomenon actually.

RSPCA campaign against the flat-faced Persian in which they tell the truth about the breed. Image: RSPCA.

The RSPCA can provide some information. They say that there has been a rise in Persian cats being abandoned to them between 2018 and 2022. 

On Facebook, the RSPCA state that: "Worryingly, there's been a 92% increase in Persian cats coming into our care in the last four years as the popularity of this flat-faced breed continues to rise. These cats are often seen as being cute because of their features, but in reality, they can suffer from: breathing difficulties, eye problems, difficulty sleeping."

They actually suffer from more problems than that such as PKD - polycystic kidney disease (35% of the Persian cats apparently suffer from this disease). And they have tear duct overflow which means the tear ducts are distorted and so tears do not drain away from the eyes but the liquid spills over down the front of the face where they face become stained.

It's a well-known problem that you have to clean the face of a Persian cat regularly. A number of celebrities in the UK have adopted Persian cats. Also, in India you will find that high-profile female celebrities like the Persian cat. In fact, in India, the Persian cat is perhaps the most popular cat breed together with the Siamese. These are very long-standing cat breeds and India has a young, emerging cat fancy and therefore they prefer the old breeds.

Punch-face Persian.

Indians living in India call the flat-based Persian a "punch-face Persian" in recognition of the fact that it looks as though somebody has punched in the face. It is an objectionable label sadly.

For example, in the UK, Kate Beckinsale, is obsessed with her Persian cats, Clive and Willow. They accompany her on her Instagram pages. Taylor Swift has not adopted a Persian cat.

In September 2012, Kim Kardashian adopted a Persian kitten. Although Taylor Swift has not adopted a Persian cat, preferring to select the Ragdoll and Scottish fold, she has promoted the concept of buying exotic domestic cat breeds which I think has encouraged others to do likewise to help create successful social media accounts such as on TikTok and Instagram.

Taylor Swift has, I believe, the highest number of followers on social media of anybody on the planet.

RELATED: Flat-faced Persian cat can’t eat conventionally because the food goes all over their face.

But when a person adopts a flat faced Persian in order to post pictures of them on social media, they will find out about the responsibility that they've taken on in looking after Persian cat which is at a slightly added level to normal. 

They will also find out that it is very hard to acquire lots of followers on social media and have a successful social media webpage. Nearly all of them fail.

So, when they have failed in their attempt to become social media stars, the Persian that they acquired no longer serves their purpose so they abandon the cat to the RSPCA. That, I believe, is the story. It is a great shame because the Persian cat is being used as a means to try and generate social media fame which a lot of people crave. It doesn't work actually unless you are Taylor Swift but then people follow her because of her love because of cats.

Separately, you will find that other well-known cat breeds are also used to try and generate fame for their owner, vicariously. The Maine Coon is a typical example. This is currently a very popular cat breed and because of their size they look very impressive in photographs. 

You will see many TikTok and Instagram accounts in which the account holder shows off her Maine Coon cat and how they develop from kittens to giants. The same objective is being followed for the owner of these cats: to achieve social media fame through their cat.

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Please forgive any typos. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I can't spend long on them as they are not seen by a lot of people nowadays! Sad but true.

People often abandon cats anonymously when one of them is pregnant

People often abandon cats anonymously when one of them is pregnant or there has been a recent birth of a litter of kittens. But to abandon a couple of cats, one of whom is pregnant, as occurred recently not only indicates a very sloppy approach to cat caregiving but that low standard is compounded by abandoning at a crucial time when cat care needs to be stepped up.

It is like an equation leading to the same conclusion. Carless cat ownership often includes a failure to spay and neuter a female and male cat. Sometimes this is deliberate as the owner might think they can make a few bucks selling the kittens; even pretending that they are Maine Coons.

Or sometimes the owner is very short of money and feels that they can't spay the female as they cost around £100 in the UK. A lack of sufficient funds is a major barrier to adequate cat caregiving. It is so important that people who want to adopt a cat do their maths to make sure they can afford a cat or cats. It can be expensive to look after a cat properly.

But once the mother is pregnant or the kittens are born the careless owner finds that the added responsibility is the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Terrified cats found inside taped up box outside south Essex pet hospital

This scenario was recently acted out in the UK. Two frightened cats were placed in a cardboard box by their owner and the box placed outside the PDSA hospital in South Essex. One of the cats was very pregnant with labour imminent.

Abandoned tabby cats dumped outside an animal hospital. One of them was heavily pregnant. Image: PDSA.

The charity did not have space but this was a sad and urgent situation so one of our fosterers kindly made room and took them temporarily until a permanent fosterer could be found. The PDSA staff named the cats Charles and Camilla after the king and queen and Camilla gave birth to five healthy kittens the very next day. - PDSA.

In the UK there have been an unprecedented number of abandoned cats. This is because of the after effects of the Covid pandemic. The pandemic messed up so many areas of day-to-day life. It's legacy is still felt.

4 things you should NEVER do to your cat

This is Jackson Galaxy's list of 4 things that you should never do to your cat but it could equally well have been my list or the list of any one of millions of excellent cat caregivers. Actually, my list would be longer but Jackson was limited by the length of the video. 

It is wonderful for me that at the top of his list is declawing. He's American and millions of Americans declaw their cat. He is alienating these potential supporters by criticising them which is the right thing to do and it is wonderful to see. It proves that Jackson set high standards.

Although he has to say that declawing is very bad because it is bloody well exactly that. He says declawing should be banned in the US. He's right and it is banned in 2 states and around a dozen cities but there's a long way to go. Across the rest of the world around 38 countries specifically ban it. In other countries general welfare laws would effectively ban it. Or no one even thinks about declawing in nearly all other countries.

Declawing is a big NO NO. Screenshot from the video.

His next pet hate is punishing your cat. Right again. That's number 2 on his list of things that you should never do to your cat. Cats do not understand punishment as it is a human concept, activity and process that is solely for humans. It requires understanding social norms and morals. That is not the domain of are precious feline friends.

Punishment alienates your cat if it achieves anything at all. There is a subtle modification that Britain's celebrity cat behaviourist, Dr Bruce Fogle, recommends and he calls it 'divine intervention'. 

Jackson mentions the squirt bottle. If your cat cannot see that the squirt is coming from their owner but just arrives as if by God's will, it will not alienate the cat but simply tell the cat that what they are doing results in an unpleasant experience. This should stop them doing it.

Personally, I'd never do this but there is a difference. There are better ways of dealing with cat behavior that a cat owner does not like: training through positive reinforcement or accepting it (modified human thinking).

Yelling at your cat is a form of punishment and is also a No, No. I can understand when this might seem acceptable or happens because the owner loses self-control but it isn't a good idea.

His fourth point of not giving up is, I believe, a reference to not abandoning your cat to a shelter or in a much worse place. There are always ways to resolve problems many of which are actually relatively straightforward.

It's the kitten dumping season. A minority are cruel to cats through their ignorance

The kitten season, as they call it, is upon us. This is the time when negligent and frankly ignorant people which represent a tiny minority of the whole allow adult cats to breed because they have failed to sterilise them.  This is my rant.

And so, thousands of kittens are brought into the world when they should not have been. Often, they are dumped at shelters or anywhere considered convenient to these ignorant people. As long as the can remain anonymous. Hidden from the eyes of the public.

Abandoned cat outside RSPCA Wirral branch. Image: RSPCA

RSPCA announce kitten season

The RSPCA have said that the kitten season is upon us. The RSPCA in Bedfordshire say that many people do not have their cats neutered and they are seeing kittens of 6-7 months of age having kittens. And in these homes where they don't spay and neuter their cats, they can go from a couple of cats to 10 in a matter of months.

We've seen horror visions of cat hoarders where they have failed to spay or neuter their cats and you can see the parents and the offspring, all with similar coats, huge families drowning the cat hoarder to the point where they are highly negligent of the cats' welfare causing ill-health and often death.

Dumping season

But this is the season of dumping cats as well. The photograph on this page comes from the RSPCA Wirral branch. An 11-year-old cat was left outside the branch offices. A classic picture of cat abandonment through carelessness and stupidity. Yes, I am angry; that's why I am calling these people stupid and ignorant.

That is the truth of it. There is no need for it. It just takes a little bit of common sense and thought. It requires a person to be a little more self-disciplined and a little less self-indulgent. Often, they fancy having a cat but they know nothing about cats or what to do in order to be a good cat caregiver. That is being self-indulgent.

For example, the RSPCA Wirral branch was called to reports of abandon cats at a Liverpool property. They found 40 cats there in very poor conditions. Just another typical story.

Importance of spay and neuter

Caroline Allen, the Chief Petty Officer at the RSPCA said:

"We have long been highlighting the importance of neutering for cat welfare. Getting your cat neutered protects them from certain diseases, and prevents unexpected and costly litters of kittens being born."

All common sense again. Why does the RSPCA have to lecture the public about this? You don't have to be a brain surgeon to understand that you have to neuter and spay domestic cats if you have a male and female living with you.

Surge

Caroline Allen confirmed what we already know namely that during kitten season they see a surge in abandon kittens sometimes found in cardboard boxes or dumped by the roadside because their owners can no longer care for them. They did not budget. They did not project into the future as to what was required. 

They just self-indulgently grabbed a cat or two because they thought they'd have a cat. Rescue charities like the RSPCA come under intense pressure during kitten season and over the summer months. And in the UK people are facing financial pressure at the moment because of the cost-of-living crisis. There is likely to be even more kitten abandonments than usual.

People should realise that abandoning their cat by the side of the road or even at the RSPCA is an act of animal cruelty.

'Chaos' this year 2023

The Wirral Animal Samaritans' co-founder Corrie Plumpton urges people to look inside carrier bags in case there is a kitten in there that's been dumped. She says that many people throw away unwanted litters. 

Just throw them away as if they are rubbish. Ms Plumpton told the Liverpool Echo that they are seeing a rise in injured, dead and pregnant cats. And they see this every year but this year, 2023, "is chaos" she said.

Corrie urges people to think about the veterinary bills when they adopt a cat. And the cost of cat food in every other cost. It is not cheap.

She added:

"People need to take more responsibility for their pets. We are seeing a lot of cats fighting, cats with abscesses, injured cats, heavily pregnant cats. There's pressure from all sides. We are having to turn away non-urgent cases; we try to keep one space free for a major need."

Yes, that's my little rant for the day. It needs around because people aren't listening. It is just a tiny minority but it is significant because it amounts to hundreds of thousands of people in the UK who simply do not take responsible attitude towards cat ownership. It's time they change their ways.

A pathetic reason for giving up a cat to a shelter or they lied

This story on social media irritated me. All I have is the headline. And it is this: "This cat was handed into my shelter for eating the family hamster". I think that is a pathetic reason for giving up on your cat and putting them in jeopardy (unless they lied). 

Putting a cat into a shelter does indeed put them in jeopardy because it depends upon another person coming along to adopt him or her. If they don't, they are in dangerous territory; they can be euthanised.

So why is the reason for relinquishment pathetic? The people who adopted the cat in the first place either had a hamster at that time or they bought a hamster while they had their cat. Either way, they knew that there would be a danger of their cat attacking the hamster. 

A pathetic reason for giving up a cat to a shelter or they lied. Image: skeletonclock on reddit.com

They created the conditions under which their cat eventually did attack and kill the family hamster.

If fault is to be apportioned it goes a hundred percent to the human care givers. The cat was simply behaving instinctively and naturally. I don't need to go on about this because it's obviously wrong for the owners to give up their cat for this reason. It is also obviously wrong for them to place a cat and hamster together.

I'm not saying it was deliberate. It can't have been but it was due to carelessness in some shape or form. Perhaps the hamster escaped their cage. Perhaps the owner was playing with the hamster and it jumped off onto the ground and their cat was not too far away and attacked it.

No matter how you interpret it the problem always goes back to humans. It is probably fair to say that every time a domestic cat is relinquished to a shelter the underlying problem is human behaviour. The only time that it can't be is if the cat is mentally ill, otherwise it is instinctive feline behaviour reacting to human-made circumstances.

There are very, very few mentally ill domestic cats requiring drug treatment of some sort. Rather sadly, the person who posted on social media completed their title with the word "Reckon she did it?" It's irrelevant except to say that the owners might have made up the story in order to give up their cat.

That wouldn't surprise me one bit. Perhaps it's a very good question. People like to make up stories when they walk into a shelter with their cat to give them up. They want to divert attention away from their mistakes and inability to care for a cat. If they did lie, they fabricated a silly excuse.

Everybody knows that when you adopt a cat you do so for the life of the cat unless some extraordinary and exceptional circumstance intervenes. That's the target. And there will be ups and downs. There will be difficult moments. There will be times when you want to give up your cat (maybe).

But just like a marriage between man and wife or man and man or woman and woman, you make sure that you go through those moments and sort them out. Often when you come out the other side the relationship has improved.

Discussion on cat owner who went to an airport to abandon her young cat

NEWS AND COMMET: This is a peculiar story. Initially it made me scratch my head but I saw the issues later when writing this. A cat owner who might have been identified through CCTV cameras, apparently decided to abandon their five-month-old cat at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. They didn't catch a flight so the indication is that they travelled to the airport and then left on the RTA train going downtown.

Cat abandoned in airport bathroom. This is a photo-edited creation! Not the cat in the story. Image: MikeB.

They abandoned their gray-and-white cat in an airport bathroom near a pre-check in area. The cat was in a carrier sitting on a sink. The illustration on this page is a mockup by me so this is not the actual cat and neither is the carrier on a sink! It's presence is to illustrate the page.

The cat and carrier were discovered by a Southwest Airlines employee. Initially they thought that this wasn't a purposeful abandonment of a cat but an accident. They announced the cat's presence over the tannoy system without response.

Airline staff contacted Meredith Janik who rescues and fosters cat. She appears to have put them in touch with Deborah Bartowick of Able Animal Clinic in Parma who are/were holding the cat for three days in case somebody came forward but there were no enquiries.

The cat will be adopted out. Deborah Bartowick voiced the concerns and thoughts of others when she said:

"I think they’re a horrible person. You don’t do that to a living creature. They don’t know the animal could have ended up in worse hands".

She also said:

"From previous experience I’ve seen other animals who weren’t able to fly, and not able to be accommodated. They were just left next to the trash can at the airport. They’ve indicated that the airport found a Beagle this week from a person who decided that they were going to travel, leave their animal and continue on their trip."

The feeling is that the person should be prosecuted for animal abandonment, fined and punished in some way. They've got to find them and I'm not sure that there will be enough commitment to do that either from the staff at the airport and the prosecutors within the justice system.

On the face of it, it appears to be very peculiar way, however, of abandoning a cat. The cat was found in good health with no fleas. This was clearly a domestic cat, well cared for it seems but the person decided that they wanted rid of "it" and further decided that the best way to do that was to take the cat to a busy place where somebody would find it. That's what happened. At least that's a good aspect of it. Perhaps then no so strange.

It's better than abandoning a cat nearer rescue center at the weekend in the middle of winter. But it would have been so much better for all concerned if the person had gone to a rescue center. Perhaps the were concerned that the cat would be put down for 'behavioral issues'.

I can see the issues. If you are a decent person perhaps it is hard to relinquish yourself of cat ownership in a way which is guaranteed to be safe for the cat.

The story is reported by 19 News online.

Pandemic lockdowns exposed the less-than-optimal human-to-cat relationship

NEWS AND OPINION: I'm on my high horse again but I think that this is a very relevant topic. But first things first. The Kingston Humane Society has a nice photograph of a cat in one of their cages and what I like about it is the customised tent in one corner of the cage where the cat can hide. 

It's sad and nice at the same time. It's sad because cats in shelters need to hide because they are frightened but it is nice because the shelter has provided cats with a means to hide. A sort of home-from-home environment.

Kingston Humane Society cat in a cage with a tent to hide in. Image: the society.

The fact that cats need to hide indicates that their true character is probably not going to be shown at a shelter because of anxiety induced by the shelter environment. This affects adoptions.

That's the first point out of the way. The second point is this: like other cat and animal shelters, this one has too many animals in their care. Their capacity is 144 and they currently care for 315 which is more than twice their capacity.

The director of the Kingston Humane Society, Gord Hunter, puts this down to the after-effects of the Covid pandemic and those long lockdowns during which some people impulsively adopted a companion animal.

And there is the problem: people adopted these abandoned companion animals on a known temporary basis. They must have known that the lockdowns were going to end within a defined time. They must've realised that at the end of those lockdowns they would have to go back to their normal work routine, and they should have asked themselves whether they would retain their cat or dog companion when that happened.

If they didn't do that and many didn't, they were not committed to being the caregiver of a companion animal for the life of the animal. And that is the only way to adopt a cat or dog. If a person can't make that commitment, they should not adopt.

There might be some culpability with animal shelters in this regard by adopting out cats and dogs to people during the pandemic perhaps realising that this was a temporary state of affairs.

For me, it's a question of raising standards of cat caregiving. I know it's boring to discuss this, but the flood of unwanted animals adopted inwards to shelters such as the one in Kingston indicates a less than optimal human-to-cat relationship and standard of care.

This state of affairs is one reason why there are feral cats which are a perceived problem to many people. There needs to be some way of raising standards in the interest of human society and animal welfare. Education is the best answer and regulations are a secondary solution.

Source: Global News.

Cat abandoned when his owner died but neighbours stepped in

This is a story that, for me, begs some questions like 'How did it happen?' It comes from a local online local meeting site called 'nextdoor.co.uk' and this branch of the site concerns residents living not very far from me. Here is the post:

"A few weeks ago, I posted a rather different picture of this fine cat who was accessing our enclosed garden at night. I used a paper collar and after the second attempt I was contacted by a lovely lady who lives very locally who had been feeding him twice a day. She identified him as a stray boy who had been abandoned after his elderly human died. Poor boy. So now he is neutered, vaccinated and microchipped, and will never be lonely, vulnerable, hungry, fearful or cold again! A new beginning for Julius, who revealed his 'soul name' to me - we have no idea what name he had been called by his previous human. It was lovely to make a new friend too, in the shape of the dear lady who had been feeding him and generally watching out for his wellbeing too."

It is self-explanatory. The cause of the abandonment is concerning as you might have thought someone would have checked up on the cat. 

Julius, a cat who was abandoned when their owner died. Image: nextdoor.co.uk

I think it is reasonable to assume that neighbours would have known that the deceased woman lived with a cat companion but apparently not. 

It does point to a potential problem of elderly people living alone when relatives have pre-deceased them and perhaps, they do not have a will. They just die and few people if any know about it.

The story dramatically improves as neighbours step in. Firstly, one neighbour feeds the 'stray cat' who was a domestic cat. And a second neighbour then adopts him and calls him Julius. They don't know his previous name as there was no ID.

It appears too that he was not neutered or microchipped. That problem has been sorted out as well.

The end of the story is good. And there is a bonus in that the two neighbours mentioned got to know each other

Animal charities swamped due to UK's cost-of-living crisis

There is another report today in the news media about animal charities being swamped with abandoned cats and dogs because of a double whammy of major problems. Firstly, there was the surge in cat and dog ownership during the pandemic with those owners now giving up their pets because they've decided they can't afford to keep them which has been exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis. 

In isn't just the cost-of-living crisis which is causing this abandonment of pets. People adopting pets during Covid now see the reality of cat and dog caregiving and have decided that they were unprepared or uncommitted for a lifetime of cat or dog caregiving.

RSPCA shelter. Image: RSPCA

The RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) has reported a 25% increase in abandoned pets during 2022. They say that their employees are overwhelmed at their call centre from owners reporting that they are struggling to feed and care for their animals.

During the first seven months of this year, they recorded 22,908 cases of abandoned pets paired with 18,373 during the same period last year.

They have reported such events as a terrier dog being thrown from a truck travelling at 50 miles an hour and 20 puppies being abandoned in a box in a layby in Essex.

They put most of this problem down to the extraordinary number of 3.2 million cats and dogs that were bought or acquired during the lockdowns coupled with the increased pressure on the finances of many cat and dog owners in the UK who are facing extraordinary bills to heat and power their homes this winter. 

Some economists have predicted 22% inflation in the UK thanks to a projected £6,000 annual bill for a typical family home to provide gas and electricity to that home beginning in the early part of next year.

Cats Protection has seen a rise of 46% in the number of animals on the waiting list in July of this year compared to last year. Peter Shergold, the head of operations at Cats Protection said: 

"This is the worst situation in organisational memory in terms of the pressure on our services to take in cats. The rise is directly linked to the cost-of-living crisis."

I can also see, by the way, problems with the cost of running animal charities. There are reports of numerous small businesses going under because the cost of gas and electricity is just too high so their overheads become unbearable. I can see some small animal charities having to close at least potentially because of the extraordinary rise in the price of gas which has a knock-on effect on the cost of electricity in the UK.

Pet owners are struggling to afford basics such as food and litter for their cats. The extreme cost of gas is due to Putin's attempt to force Europe to loosen their sanctions against Putin. It's blackmail basically. He doesn't care about killing thousands upon thousands of innocent Ukrainian citizens and he doesn't care about the dramatically negative effect that the price of gas is having upon so many organisations and individuals in the UK. In fact, he wants the Brits and Europeans to suffer.

I can remember reading an article about a man who said that he has to use the dregs from his shampoo in order to make ends meet. He could then, and only then, maintain enough funds to look after his cat. But it occurred to me that most people add some water to the bottom of their shampoo bottle in order to get out the last bits because by doing this you can get two or three more washes. I don't think that it is a particularly clever thing to do or something which indicates that a person is on their uppers.

I can remember reading an article about a man who said that he has to use the dregs from his shampoo in order to make ends meet. He could then, and only then maintain enough funds to look after his cat. But it occurred to me that most people add some water to the bottom of their shampoo bottle in order to get out the last bits because by doing this you can get two or three more washes. I don't think that it is a particularly clever thing to do or something which indicates that a person is on their uppers.

I can remember reading an article about a man who said that he has to use the dregs from his shampoo in order to make ends meet. He could then, and only then maintain enough funds to look after his cat. But it occurred to me that most people add some water to the bottom of their shampoo bottle in order to get out the last bits because by doing this you can get two or three more washes. I don't think that it is a particularly clever thing to do or something which indicates that a person is on their uppers.

Also, I think that a lot of people have built into their lives overheads such as subscriptions to smart phone providers, Sky television all broadband Internet. Or they are buying a car on hire purchase as opposed to outright. So, they burden their lives with overheads and they are not prepared to release themselves from these overheads which leads them to a precarious financial situation under the current cost of living crisis. 

They should divest themselves of some of these expensive overheads and ensure that their expenditure is less than their income and then they can put some money aside for those unexpected veterinary bills in a self-insurance policy. 

Owners abandon the cats that kept them company during lockdown

Battersea Dogs & Cats Home has reported that 148 cats have been surrendered to the shelter for financial reasons. This is double the number compared to last year. They've all been handed in because their owners are cash-strapped, hit by the cost-of-living crisis which has been so heavily reported on in the UK. And the winter is yet to arrive. This is when gas and electricity prices are going to double or treble or whatever the figure is. That's going to push up inflation even further perhaps to around 13% in the UK. There will be more surrenders.

Pictured: Dustin 2-month-old male tabby and white kitten gifted to Battersea his as owners were no longer able to look after him. Image: Battersea Dogs & Cats Home (believed).

What is particularly sad about this story is that the people who adopted kittens and cats during the Covid lockdowns are now abandoning them because of, yes, the cost-of-living crisis and inflation and, frankly, because they didn't really work out how much it would cost to look after a cat for the life of the cat.

Battersea Dogs & Cats Home say that it costs about £1,500 annually to look after a cat properly. You might do it cheaper than that but let's put it this way, it does cost money and it is something which is often overlooked.

RELATED: Shanghai residents fight back against state-sanctioned Covid-related animal cruelty.

Battersea say that the people who are giving up their cats are often devastated and that it is a very emotional time for them. I would doubt that applies in every case. If you casually adopt a cat during lockdown to keep you company it signals to me that the attitude of the adopter is incorrect and that being the case giving up their cat is not going to be as hard as they state.

Battersea state that the number of cats relinquished to their shelter because owners can no longer afford to look after them has reached 9.6% of families relinquishing cats whereas it was 5.9% last year.

An example is Amanda - a fictional name to protect her identity - who found her two cats were a huge support during lockdown is but she's been forced to give them up for financial reasons. She said: "I was struggling to afford things and I didn't want my cats to suffer, so it was best to find them a better home. I struggle with mental health and the cats were a big part of my life, so it was upsetting to get rid of them."

There is a double problem which is this. More people are giving up their cats and it is harder to rehome cats because people are wary about the rising costs ahead of them and are therefore hesitant to take on the added financial responsibility.

RELATED: Fears that starving Russian soldiers are eating abandoned cats and dogs.

In one instance a couple of cats were surrendered because they became pregnant and their owners said that they could not afford to take care of the kittens as well. Well, you have to think why did the owners allow their cats to become pregnant? That is careless cat ownership.

Another high-profile cat rescue organisation, Cats Protection, said that a survey of 10,000 cat owners found that 30% were concerned about affording bills.

I can foresee many more cat surrenders taking place over the forthcoming winter. What is happening now was entirely predictable and predicted a couple of years ago during the first lockdown. And the same problem is occurring with dogs. In fact, I would suggest that the problem is bigger with dogs because more dogs were adopted during Covid lockdowns than cats.

On the other side of the coin, cat owners determined to hang on to their cats are getting pet food from food banks. Animal charity Blue Cross already has four pet food banks and is looking at rolling out more across the country according to the Express newspaper online.

An example of irresponsible cat ownership

This tweet caught my I as an example of irresponsible cat ownership. It is just one minor incident in the grand scheme of things. Just one animal or cat shelter who posted the information on Twitter. But it combines two elements of irresponsible cat ownership. The first is not spaying a female cat and so, in this incident, the cat becomes pregnant. And to compound the irresponsibility, the owners abandoned this cute, white female cat when they left their apartment.

RELATED: Tory Toff is Irresponsible Cat Owner.

Below is a screenshot of the Twitter tweet. Why have I presented a screenshot and not the actual tweet? Because they can be removed on the Twitter website or they can be altered to present a link here to the Twitter website which removes the pictures. So, I'm doing this because it's more functional and more enduring.

But it has a happy ending because the new tenant in the apartment obviously bumped into the cat because she was there and asked whether the cat belonged to the previous tenants which was confirmed. Knowing that they had left and abandon her she appears to have adopted the cat. I've presumed that the new tenant is a woman.

RELATED: The Backyard Tiger – Big Cat Public Safety Act will end big cat abuse.

When you think about it the previous tenants were highly irresponsible because what if the apartment was left vacant for a couple of months? The cat would have died of starvation and the kittens inside her. I don't think you could be more irresponsible as a cat owner than that. It happens. People do just throw away their cat or cats sometimes. It's a form of human psychopathy. It is psychopathic behaviour because if there is any sensitivity towards others, both humans and animals, you wouldn't do this. You would feel the pain that you are causing. This would prevent this cruel behaviour. But there are a lot of people like this. They are everywhere; many more than people probably envisage.

Look at Vladimir Putin for example! He's the world's greatest psychopath and mass murderer. He has absolutely zero sensitivity towards the suffering, pain and death caused by him of others including hundreds of children and elderly women. I am digressing.

The New Moon Rescue is based in Surrey, UK by the way. The British are meant to be a cat loving race of people! Clearly not all of them are.

Animal shelter volunteer says that they have never been so busy on intakes

NEWS AND COMMENT: An animal shelter in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, has never been busier. They are experiencing their highest ever demand to rehome cats and dogs in receiving 55 calls to taking unwanted companion animals in just one day.

One volunteer, Janice Porter, said that the Grove Hill Animal Trust has never seen it so bad in terms of intakes and she's been volunteering there for 20 years. By 11 AM on Monday she had received 20 calls to take in cats.

Janice Porter a volunteer at Grove Hill Animal Trust, a N. Ireland animal shelter. Photo: Belfast Live

What's behind this? She thinks there are two reasons (1) people who acquired cats during the Covid lockdown failed to spay and neuter them due to inexperience and (2) the cost-of-living crisis is making it harder for owners to fund the keeping of a companion animal. It appears that people are cutting their living expenses and one of the things to go is their pet. There is a third reason: people returning to the office after working at home under artificial circumstances.

This, it has to be said, points to the same problem of not spaying and neutering and in adopting during the Covid pandemic in order to keep yourself company. These are adopters who were not really committed to caring for their companion animal for the life of the animal. That's the root of the issue.

The Covid pandemic distorted our lifestyles. It has created some long-term problems in many areas. There was actually a prediction that there would be a flood of cat and dog abandonments after Covid for these very reasons.

RELATED: More cats than dogs abandoned during coronavirus pandemic.

There was certainly a huge surge in dog adoptions in particular because millions of people had time on their hands to do nothing while they received furlough money (UK). They thought they would adopt a dog and take him or her for a walk in the park to occupy themselves. That sounds great but it is not the best way to prepare for a lifetime of care of a companion animal. It might work out but as we can see too often it doesn't.

Many of the cats being abandoned to this shelter are aged around 2 to 3 years old. This once again points to adoptions made during lockdown.

And perhaps there are other issues at play here. Let's say a person adopts a cat during lockdown and then let's them wander around and in effect abandons that cat so that he or she becomes a stray. Another person feeds the stray and because they are not spayed, they are going to mate with a stray tomcat and produced kittens in quite large numbers over a couple of years. This sort of thing is happening as well. The kind person who fed the street cat is then going to take them and their kittens to a shelter for rehoming.

It is sad to see this surge in abandonments but it was predictable.

Woman's new home came with two stray cats and they changed her life

Julia Davis, 24, begins the story of her relationship with 2 stray cats that she met at her new home by saying: "The new house that I'm moving into literally came with a cat". She subsequently found another! So, her new home came with two cats, one white and one black, and they changed her life.

Davis, Coop and in the background the chicken coop where he was found. Image: Julia Davis.

She already had a TikTok page and decided to document the story of her new cat companion who with the help of TikTok visitors decided to call him 'Cooper' because he was found in a chicken coop at the back of the house (is it a chicken coop?). I guess he had used it for cover and as a home. As she approached the construction, she saw the fluffy, white stray cat.

The video explains what happened. 

@julia_adavis Drop name suggestions in the comments! Bonus-I really like names that are nouns or names that have shorter nicknames that end in the “e” sound #names #cat ♬ original sound - Julia Davis

Note: This is an embedded video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source or the video is turned into a link which would stop it working here. I have no control over this.

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She noticed that he had not been cared for and was therefore a stray perhaps formerly owned as he was very friendly. She adopted him there and then it seems to me. She decided to take him to a veterinarian pretty well immediately and I guess as soon as possible because his ears were in a bad way and he needed to be checked over and receive some basic veterinary care. He had probably been in fights with other cats. That's how their ears get scratched and torn.

RELATED: No One Owns Stray Or Feral Cats.

A few days later Davies posted another TikTok video showing the discovery of a second cat, this time black, sitting on the roof of the chicken coop and waiting to be adopted! He was also in poor health. She named him 'Rufus' and decided to take care of him as well.

She provides regular updates on her TikTok page about her relationship with these two friendly stray cats who are no longer strays. As long as her viewers are interested - and they are - she said that she would continue to provide updates.

And she kindly said: "I honestly like to say these cats belong to all of us. Everyone who watches my videos has played a part in their care. It's been a massive group effort that's restored my faith in humanity."

She said that because of the help that she had received from the community of TikTok users, "These cats have a better life than they had before. I think that's really awesome".

And of course, they have helped her. She has a better life than before it seems to me with TikTok success. And the backstory is a good one: cat welfare. Two cats have a much better life; a life that they should have as domestic cat companions and not struggling strays. You can see how keen Coop was to receive the touch of a human hand in the video.

P.S. There have been instances of people moving home who have deliberately left their domestic cat companion behind because either (1) they want to get rid of their cat or (2) they believe that domestic cats should stay with their home as they are wedded to their home range.