A No Kill Nation?
It's Closer Than You Think
Over the last century, cats have gone from being rural animals roaming free to America's number one pet. Yet, as popular as cats are, they are euthanized more than any other urban animal -- in our community at the rate of 6 each day. So why do the very animals that are closest to our hearts end up so often dying at our hands? To understand this, takes a historical perspective.

Cats as Property. In the early 1900s, cats and dogs were service animals earning their living on farms. There were no shelters because they lived outdoors and the concept of "pet" did not yet exist. Their relationship to people was that of property -- to perform services and to live or die at their owner's discretion.

By 1940, America was well on its way to becoming an industrial society and as people moved to the cities they brought cats and dogs with them. In the country their free-roaming lifestyle was accepted, but in the city it became a problem -- particularly with rabid dogs roaming urban streets. States enacted animal control laws mandating counties to "catch and kill" stray dogs. Stray cats were not cited because, unlike dogs, they posed no rabies threat -- but they were caught in the dragnet anyway.

Many municipalities contracted out their animal control duties to humane societies and SPCAs -- who were paid to round up strays and keep them for their owners to claim or someone else to adopt -- and if neither happened quickly -- to euthanize them. Communities started licensing dogs to identify those that were owned and vaccinated. The campaign was very effective. Today there are relatively few stray dogs and dog rabies has been virtually eliminated. Cats were less affected and because of the absence of stray dogs, feral cat colonies grew unchecked.

Cats as Companions. When cats and dogs moved to the city, they lost their service role and were kept simply for company. Now vaccinated and licensed, dogs moved indoors. Cats too became indoor pets with the invention of kitty litter around 1950. The intimacy of home living strengthened the human-animal bond and many began viewing pets more as "companions" than "property".

The scope of sheltering expanded to include relinquished pets as well as strays. Even though the rabies threat ended, animal control shelters continued to euthanize surplus cats and dogs. While this made perfect sense in the context of cats and dogs as property, with the public now viewing them as companions, sentiment moved away from supporting euthanasia to looking for more humane alternatives to overpopulation. This gave rise to the No Kill Rescue Movement. In the 1960s loosely-organized foster groups began forming to "save"

homeless pets from animal control shelters for fear they would be killed -- but because they did not euthanize, they could only save a limited number. As a result, the majority of homeless cats and dogs continued to die in animal control shelters.

Spay/Neuter Legislation. By 1970, both groups realized sheltering by itself was futile if more weren't done to reduce overall populations. States interceded again and enacted spay/neuter laws requiring that all animals adopted from shelters be sterilized. This worked very well for dogs but not for cats. It failed to address the large number of feral cats that continued to flood communities with kittens -- many of whom were adopted without ever entering a shelter.

In 1990, Alley Cat Allies formed to promote TNR (trap-neuter-return of managed feral cats -- those with daily caregivers providing food, water and outdoor shelter) to limit feral cat populations. Now there are hundreds of organizations, such as ours, sterilizing feral cats -- the source of about 80% of the adoptable kittens born each year.

Aggressive spay/neuter programs have lowered annual shelter euthanasias from 17 million fifteen years ago to about 5 million today -- making the concept of a no kill nation no longer just the dream of fringe animal welfare groups but an attainable goal. Major institutions like the San Francisco SPCA and animal control agencies like Maricopa County, Arizona are moving toward ending the euthanasia of homeless pets -- and with grants from organizations like Maddie's Fund, entire communities have the funding to follow suit.

Overpopulation is now a problem with a humane solution. With this shift from sheltering to sterilizing, the fate of a homeless pet no longer rests on the availability of a shelter cage. By simply bringing the pet birth rate in line with the adoption rate we are becoming a no kill nation -- it's just a matter of time.

Cat News You Can Use
Are pets a healthy pleasure? "Today in the U.S., there are more than 68 million pet dogs and at least 75 million pet cats. Considering the expense and the responsibility a pet adds to a person's life, it is reasonable to question why people have pets. According to several nationwide surveys, about 90% of pet owners describe their pets as important, cherished family members. Further, they say that pets make them feel calm, happy, and able to handle stress in their lives... Although the idea that a pet serves as social support may appear peculiar to some people, pet owners talk to and confide in their pets and describe them as important friends.

Because pets, unlike human friends, are perceived as nonjudgmental, they are ideal candidates for psychological interventions aimed at increasing individuals' social support. ... Although a pet can enhance a person's ability to handle stress, it is not accurate to say simply that "pets lower blood pressure". [But] existing evidence about how pets influence people's blood pressure suggests that for people who enjoy animals, and especially for those with few social contacts, pets can be a healthy pleasure." -- Karen Allen, "Are Pets a Healthy Pleasure? The Influence of Pets on Blood Pressure", Current Directions in Psychological Science, December 2003