This is a little bit of a rant. I’ve known for a long time that often, people treat cats as second-class citizens. People overlook and undervalue cats in comparison to dogs in many situations. What set me off today is that I wanted to get some high-quality cat treats for my furbabies. I went to two local stores to look for the treats, and the difference in availability was striking. In this post, I’m going to talk about my great treat-hunt, and then go into some examples of the treatment of dogs vs. cats in a shelter that I used to work for.
The great cat treats search in my local stores:
A pet supply store:
Before heading to the store, I looked online for a list of high-quality, low-calorie cat treats (gotta keep my cats trim!) and got a great list together. I remembered that a store in my local area, Tractor Supply, carries great brands such as Wellness and Blue Buffalo. Perfect! Unfortunately, my trip was disappointing. Oh, the store does carry the brands I was after! However, while they did have these brands in cat food, the only treats I could find fit onto two shelves in a tiny section of an aisle. I found an entire aisle devoted to high-end dog treats, with a wide variety of flavors and options to choose from.
A clear indication that cats don’t receive the same level of importance as dogs is the disparity in the options available for dogs and cats
A big box store
I decided to go to Walmart to see what I could find. Surprisingly, they had an entire aisle for cat treats. I even found a few higher-end brands! It can’t all be great, though; I noticed that the cat food aisle was bare, with so many brands out of stock. I went to the refrigerated section to see if they had any fresh cat food. Nope. They had two refrigerated cases for dogs, but nothing available for cats. I know the particular brands do make a version for cats, but it was not available. This suggests that the store does not prioritize the nutritional needs of cats.
My experience in an animal shelter
The lack of attention and resources for cats is also evident in animal shelters. I worked for an animal shelter that did try to do a better job with that, but it fell short. Before I go into this section, I want to mention that according to the ASPCA, there are an estimated 3.3 million dogs and 3.2 million cats entering animal shelters in the US every year. This statistic gives you an idea of the numbers. I am going to talk about my particular experience in one animal shelter.
Food:
The shelter that I’m talking about fed the dogs high-end wet food, but they fed the cats a much cheaper brand. The cats didn’t like the food, so they didn’t eat much of it. Instead of changing the brand, the shelter management just recommended that we feed the cats less food. The cats did waste a lot of food, but it’s because they didn’t like it.
Resources:
Overcrowding in the shelter also disturbed me. Each dog in this particular shelter has its own kennel. This prevents overcrowding because the shelter management will not put more than one dog in a kennel. However, the cat rooms are severely overcrowded. When I started working at the shelter, I was told that cat rooms shouldn’t exceed 8 cats. At the time I left, there were up to 15 cats in a room. They did not have their own cages, and the overcrowding disrupted the intake procedure.
Intake procedure:
Dogs:
When a new dog arrived into the shelter, the vet staff would place it into an intake area that had a door to an outdoor kennel. The dog had fresh air during the day, and each day the dogs were taken outside into an intake run for exercise. After a dog’s isolation period, the workers put the dog into the general population area with the same setup of a kennel with two parts- an indoor and outdoor section. This protocol remained over my entire experience in that animal shelter, and as far as I know, is still how dog intake is set up.
Cats:
When I started working for the shelter, we put cats into an isolation room when they arrived. Each cat had its own kennel in this area for a period of time. This ensured that the pet was healthy before exposing it to other cats. This room didn’t have any windows to the outside, and it was very small. Cats need natural light, but at least everyone considered the spread of illness and limited it as much as possible!
Procedure Change
Over time, the procedure changed, and larger numbers of cats came into the shelter. We started putting the new cats directly into the general population areas. The number of cats increased rapidly- faster than intake space could become available. The isolation period no longer happened in an isolation room. We started putting cats into cages in the regular rooms. Cats could still touch noses through the cage, and airborne illness started spreading. This happened frequently, and we noticed a huge increase in the number of ill cats in the shelter.
A shelter experience that really bothered me:
We had a large group of cats that came in with ringworm. Because all the cat rooms were full, management put these cats into a dog intake kennel. The outdoor windows were taken out because the outdoor side of the kennel could not contain cats. The veterinary staff did not take care of these cats, it was the regular shelter workers. Ringworm is highly contageous, and the average workers in shelters don’t receive training on infectious diseases. The workers would reuse and share the same clothing covers. Some people used gloves when handling the cats, and some didn’t. The workers would work with the cats with ringworm, and then they would go into the general population areas to work with the healthy cats.
A heartbreaking ending
Those poor cats with ringworm remained in that room with no natural light for months. One shelter worker felt so bad for a dying kitten in that room that had never seen sunlight, that she took it outside on the day before its death so it could feel the sunshine on its face for the first time. The manager scolded her for taking a cat outside of the kennel. I left that shelter because the drastic increase in cat deaths throughout the shelter became unbearable. Overcrowding of shelters leads to disease and makes it more difficult for cats to survive the shelters.
A struggle that I do understand:
I understand the shelter’s desire to take in more cats. I want to save them all, too. The pet overpopulation problem is extreme, but there is only so much that one shelter can do. I just can’t understand a shelter overcrowding the cats to the point that it overwhelms the workers and causes illness among the cats, but the dogs numbers remain low. It’s important to remember that cats deserve the same love and care as dogs. They should be treated with the same level of respect and consideration. I understand wanting to help them all, but I don’t think neglecting the cats in our care can lead to saving more.
Conclusion:
I don’t have a solution to this problem of animal overpopulation other than to fight for stricter animal laws in the communities and try to raise money to help the homeless animal population. Through education, maybe we can make a difference. I just got very irritated with yet again another reminder of how people treat cats like second-class citizens.
Helpful Links
- Housing for shelter cats: IAABC Journal
- The best cat treats: Spruce Pet
- A positive article about animal shelters. I do really value them!
