Did abandoned foreclosure cats overflow Michigan shelters?

With all the media attention given to abandoned “foreclosure cats”, we expected to see a spike in Michigan shelter intake– especially since our economy was hit harder than most. Yet the recently released 2008 Michigan Shelter Report shows a 10% decrease -- with 137 licensed animal shelters reporting receipt of 112,000 cats and kittens. This is down from an average of 124,000 for the three previous years.

Shelter cat/kitten adoptions rates weren’t affected much by the depressed economy either. In 2008 shelters placed 28% of the cats and kittens they received -- roughly the same portion as in the previous 3 years which averaged 27%. And, sadly, shelter euthanasia rates also kept pace with earlier years– 66% of their 2008 intake was killed compared to an average of 64% during 2005-2007.

So why didn’t the much-publicized increase in cat abandonment by foreclosure victims translate into larger numbers of homeless cats at Michigan shelters?

Home foreclosure in and of itself would not be cause for cat relinquishment – those of us who think of our cats as family members would no sooner give them up during hard times as we would give away our children. Even the homeless keep cats and dogs as pets. But shelter intake information is often misleading. When people give up their cats they may be uncomfortable with what others will think. So when asked why they are giving them up, they offer socially-acceptable reasons– there’s an allergic family member or they’re moving to a place that doesn’t allow cats or possibly – in 2008 – they were foreclosed on. The actual reason for the surrender may be quite different – such as they can’t afford to sterilize the cat, their new spouse doesn’t like the cat or the cat no longer uses her litter box.

Even during good economic times, roughly half the cat population lives outdoors – much like squirrels and rabbits do– but with one difference. Cats are not natural house builders so they take over existing structures for wind, rain and snow protection. If there’s an access point in an abandoned house, a roaming cat will take advantage of it. A Good Samaritan finding cats living in or near an abandoned house could reasonably assume the cats were left behind by the former occupants. Whether they had been or not is a question. Appearances can be deceiving.

While there are no hard statistics on cat abandonment, we do know that home owners often find new cats living in their yard. Most are feral cats – who have lived their entire lives outdoors – but clearly some are socialized cats that have no obvious home. Certainly one factor in cat abandonment can be home foreclosure – but the practice existed long before the markets nosedived – and there are more dynamic causes for it happening.

The bipolar nature of most euthanasia-based animal shelters -- accepting cats only to turn around and kill them -- contributes greatly to cat abandonment. Imagine the dilemma a cat guardian faces when deciding what to do for a cat they can no longer keep? Do you give the cat to a shelter knowing there is a high probability the cat will die at their hands, or do you release the cat outdoors and hope for a good outcome? It’s a difficult decision – especially since about 85% of indoor cats have their homes because someone found them outside while only 15% were formally adopted from a shelter.

Lack of accessible cat spay/neuter assistance may well be the leading cause of cat abandonment. Today we think of spay/neuter as a means of lowering the overall cat population. But the practice began in the 1950’s when the introduction of kitty litter made cats viable indoor pets. No one was worried about cat over-population – if they were, they wouldn’t have established the age to fix a cat at 6 months – cats can get pregnant at 4 months. The reason cats were sterilized was so they could keep their indoor homes. By 6 months of age, unsterilized cats started to upset their guardians with their spraying, yowling, and kittening. Vets understood this and – knowing sterilization would stop these behaviors -- offered spay/neuter as the best way to keep cats in their homes. Yet today for lower-income families, the cost to spay or neuter their cats is often out of reach.

While the stories of abandoned foreclosure cats tug at our heart strings – the problem of abandoned cats goes much deeper and in many cases would be prevented simply by making community-wide free or affordable spay/neuter available to all cats.