Study Ties Family Income To Cat Spay/Neuter

A recent Alley Cat Allies study (conducted by Harris Interactive) projects that over 80% of U.S. pet cats are neutered. That number rises to over 93% in households whose annual income exceed $35,000, but then dips to 51% in those with incomes below $35,000. The study --“Population Characteristics and Neuter Status of Cats Living in Households in the United States” is published in the April 15th edition of JAVMA (J Am Vet Med Assoc 2009;234:1023-1030)). The study concludes that family income is the strongest single predictor of whether house cats are neutered. For years many old-guard humane institutions – particularly when defending their questionable practice of putting down healthy-but-homeless cats and kittens – blame cat overpopulation on “irresponsible pet owners who didn’t get their cats fixed”. We hope this study dispels their myth once and for all.

We never bought the theory. Knowing how challenging living with an un-neutered cat is , why would anyone choose to live with one -- if they had affordable and convenient access to spay/neuter. So in 2004 we augmented our feral colony spay/neuter program with a lower-income program and began giving free spay/neuter help to households with annual incomes under $40,000. The program has been a great success. In 2008 1,325 of our 3,500 spay/neuters were of lower-income pet cats.

This January, though, we modified the program to charge a modest $25 fee for each lower-income spay/neuter voucher. Even at that charge, we were still the lowest-cost program in the area and did not anticipate the charge would have any negative impact. Well, much to our dismay it did. The drop-off in participation was considerable. For the first 4 months of this year, our lower-income sterilizations are down 65% from 2008.

We got the message – even $25 is more than many can afford for cat spay/neuter. Knowing how important our service was for lower-income families, we are again providing free vouchers and are alrealdy seeing an upturn in applications.

We’re confident If more programs like this were available, the overall rate of pet cat spay/neuters would climb – and cats that may otherwise be given to shelters or left to fend for themselves outdoors -- would stand a better chance of staying in their original home. We like to think of the lower-income program as our pre-emptive TNR (trap-neuter-return). Every cat that stays in her original home reduces the number of free-roaming cats that won’t need TNR. And because they are sterilized, even if they are lost or abandoned, they won’t reproduce.

Who benefits from our lower-income vouchers? Primarily three groups – the very young (students and single parents), the disabled and the elderly (retirees)– who live on fixed incomes. Many are on food stamps, but they can afford the day-to-day costs of a pet. It’s the front-end cost of sterilization that’s out of their reach.

As the Chinese proverb says, “One picture is worth a thousand words”. The woman in this photo, is one of our elderly participants. Her expression alone shows how much her kitties mean to her – and how lucky they are to be her friends. And -- the fact that she sought out financial help to get them fixed -- shows how totally responsible she is.