Cat friendly areas in US? (kittens, eating, male, carpet)

[mrs1885]

Is there any area of the country that's cat friendly? Every place I talk to people from, cat rescue just doesn't exist. At least not well. The kittens we have in the rescue, not a single person is interested. It breaks my heart. Heck, three of them were on the news when my chihuahua adopted them and nursed them after their mother died having them. And even with the footage people don't want to adopt cats. I'm starting to think they'll never get homes. I knew this area was bad and looked to other rescues to see if we could transfer them but everyone says the same thing. People don't adopt cats. That's so sad.

[=^..^=]

Originally Posted by mrs1885

Is there any area of the country that's cat friendly? Every place I talk to people from, cat rescue just doesn't exist. At least not well. The kittens we have in the rescue, not a single person is interested. It breaks my heart. Heck, three of them were on the news when my chihuahua adopted them and nursed them after their mother died having them. And even with the footage people don't want to adopt cats. I'm starting to think they'll never get homes. I knew this area was bad and looked to other rescues to see if we could transfer them but everyone says the same thing. People don't adopt cats. That's so sad.

Only 15 to 20% are adopted where I live. The rescues here are overloaded. The fosters are full. People do adopt cats but when you have 100 kittens born and only 15 to 20 people looking to adopt a kitty... you can see the problem. Until spaying/neutering is made mandatory all over this country, the problem will continue. There is no accountability for irresponsible pet owners. If they can't find homes for their endless stream of kittens they simply dump them along some country road or at the nearest Pound. Who knows how many are drowned by such people or meet an even worse end.

[suzco]

Some interesting relevant statistics on cat and dog ownership in the U.S.:
U.S. Pet Ownership Statistics : The Humane Society of the United States

Cats
* There are approximately 93.6 million owned cats in the United States
* Thirty-three percent of U.S. households (or 38.2 million) own at least one cat
* Fifty-six percent of owners own more than one cat
* On average, owners have two cats (2.45)
* More female cats are owned than male cats (70 percent vs. 65 percent respectively)
* Twenty-two percent of owned cats were adopted from an animal shelter
. . .
* Eighty-seven percent of owned cats are spayed or neutered

Dogs
* There are approximately 77.5 million owned dogs in the United States
* Thirty-nine percent of U.S. households own at least one dog
* Most owners (67 percent) own one dog
* Twenty-four percent of owners own two dogs
* Nine percent of owners own three or more dogs
* On average, owners have almost two dogs (1.7)
* The proportion of male to female dogs is even
* Nineteen percent of owned dogs were adopted from an animal shelter
. . .
* Seventy-five percent of owned dogs are spayed or neutered

[Bhaalspawn]

If living in a cat friendly place is important to you, don't go to Wisconsin! Wisconsin came very close to legalizing feral cat hunting a couple years ago.

[mrs1885]

Found a rescue that my adoption coordinator has been helping out that can take them in if we can't find them homes soon. She's got the cages at the local PetSmart. Not my favorite idea but it's better than being locked in a room by themselves here for the rest of their lives. Why can't people just be responsible? What's so hard about spaying and neutering your pets? There are clinics all over the country for pity sake!!! Some for free!!!!!! Gah! I just hate people.

[mishigas73]

I am proud to say that, where I grew up, my family had a BIG hand in controlling the feral cat population. (And, it didn't hurt that my aunt is a vet...)

But, every other place I've been, I've been appalled at the attitude of people. I see so many cats around here that run loose, and just pray that they've been spayed or neutered. But, hearing stories, like that of my co-worker, who had two cats who mated, "much to her surprise", I don't have much faith that people actually *get it*.

I don't know that there's any place in the US that is more cat friendly than anyplace else. But, I do know that I came *so close* to adopting a sweet little orange guy from Petco not to long ago. So, the Petco/PetSmart idea may not be the worst in the world. Not the best, but until we can find a way to cull the moronic *humans* from the world...

[=^..^=]

Originally Posted by mrs1885

Found a rescue that my adoption coordinator has been helping out that can take them in if we can't find them homes soon. She's got the cages at the local PetSmart. Not my favorite idea but it's better than being locked in a room by themselves here for the rest of their lives. Why can't people just be responsible? What's so hard about spaying and neutering your pets? There are clinics all over the country for pity sake!!! Some for free!!!!!! Gah! I just hate people.

Where I live it's partly ignorance. Backwardness. It's also selfishness and cheapness. It's poor educations. There are people who wouldn't spend a penny on their cats other than to buy them cheap cat food at the co-ops or Farm stores. Yes I read the bags there. Corn is first and meat by-products way down the list. If the cat gets sick it gets no care or is inhumanely disposed of. Then you have those selfish parents who want their children to experience the "miracle of birth." Never mind they now have a litter and no takers for the kittens or puppies. No problem for this type of person. It's off to the shelter, a quiet country road, a water barrel, a dumpster, Wal*Mart's parking lot.......

I never met people like this until I moved to the semi-rural south, but I'm sure they exist everywhere.

[luvmycat]

There are lots of strays around here, too...when a friend of mine was desperately searching for her kitty who had gotten outside and we went to animal control to see if we could find her there...oh, all I can say is ! There were SO many cats, and they all looked so sad and lonely, I left there sobbing like no tomorrow . We never found her kitty, either, which was also extremely sad. That was a very, very bad day .

The strays that find their way to my yard get TOTW and clean water, and I've fixed up my (insulated) shed with a big wicker chest and big, fluffy blanket, a sisal scratching post, and a few old carriers which I wrapped in saran wrap to cover the holes on the sides and placed pieces of carpeting inside...the least I can do is provide them with a warm place to camp out on cold days & nights so they can sleep and eat. I leave the door open just a crack so they can come and go at will and supplement that dry food with whatever they hunt. I've managed to catch a few and get them s/n...but mostly they are ferals who don't trust humans and therefore don't let me get close enough to make that possible ... so I just do what I can for those I can, and pray the others will find kind-hearted, cat-loving souls to help them out, too. It's sad when one of them disappears because I'll never know what really happened to them...the little gray guy that used to come around disappeared about 6 months ago, and he was JUST beginning to trust me enough to let me look him in the eye and talk to him while setting out his food.... Now there's a fluffy black & white guy who hisses and growls whenever he sees me, just to let me know "Hands OFF!" ... but at least he doesn't run away from me because he knows the food is coming .

[Giesela]

Its not that people don't adopt. Its that there are far to many for even most of them to be adopted.
The country is overrun with both ferals and house cats that get dumped at shelters and most put down. The town shelter here that recently close was putting down 2/3 of the kittens that came in. Forget about the adults. When I called they basically said if you don't want them put down don't bring them.
Everyone I know that ever contemplated having a cat has 4. People I know that don't want any (me) have 2 plus one outside (sigh).
Its so...disheartening.
People and their problems are so complex, so yes they are very hard to legislate and fix. Parents, children, addictions, mental illness, blah blah blah
How the he** are we ever going to fix our own problems when we can't even fix pet overpopulation? If there isn't enough compassion and responsibility to get people stop breeding, stop abandoning, stop treating pets as disposable, I see no hope for humans to solve their far more complex problems.
I think people have been sold snake oil regarding education fixing problems. Education takes you to a certain point and then can go no farther and its not enough for cat population. (1) there's always people that education doesn't reach and those people end up with surprise litters, get animals they can't or won't keep, at least once till 'educated' and that starts a chain and (2) hey, there are people who just don't agree with what your trying to educate them on, or just don't care. And education isn't going to make them.
I mean, we have to have child labor and protection laws or guess what would happen in our educated and enlightened society?

Legislation is the only way to go and its taken far too long.
I realize that brick wall types will moan about enforcement but the point is - you can't enforce anything till there is a law. One step at a time.

Let me be clear: I am not advocating one approach or the other. I think it would take a multi-prong effort of education and stiff legislation and money for free spay/neuter (I'd love to see each state have many of those mobile units), and everything else you can think of to get the cat problem under control.

As far as cat friendly....I have no idea.