Remember Me Thursday is today – the one day each year we dedicate to remembering the rescues – the pets in shelters across the country that die before knowing the love of a forever home. The goals of Remember Me Thursday awareness include Increasing adoptions from shelters and decreasing euthanasia. In the past, we’ve focused on increasing adoptions by celebrating rescue cats themselves: we’ve shared our faces of rescue, we’ve talked about the value of each cat’s life and let them speak for themselves and Ellie’s told her story about how she came to live with us. This year, instead of focusing on these remarkable rescue cats themselves, we’ll focus on the other goal of Remember Me Thursday: decreasing euthanasia [for space concerns]. 

How can we prevent so many cats from ending up in shelters and on “death row” from space constraints in our shelters? Two ways to avoid the overload of cats many shelters face: spaying and neutering our cats and those living in cat colonies to prevent unwanted litters and microchipping cats so they’ll be returned to their owners if lost. According to Weiss et al., owners relinquish at least one-third of cats entering shelters each year. How can we help these people who struggle as I did with an untenable situation where I faced an impossible choice to give up my cat or not? By addressing solutions to the most common reasons owners surrender their cats, I hope to help owners keep their cats and decrease the rescues waiting for forever homes in our shelters. Perhaps the most powerful way to remember our orphan pets involves preventing them from becoming orphans - starting when they are initially adopted. 

The scope of the problem: let’s do some quick math

According to the ASPCA, in the United States, roughly 3.2 million cats arrive in our animal shelters each year. Weiss et al. estimate AT LEAST one-third of cats enter shelters each year because their people can’t or won’t keep them (based on the ASPCA’s numbers, that’s more than one million cats [1,066,667] each year). Based on the data available from Shelter Animals Count, owner-relinquishments for participating shelters are roughly one-third of gross intakes - confirming Weiss et al.’s estimate. Furthermore, for those 3.2 million cats arriving at shelters each year, 860,000 cats in those same shelters are euthanized each year – primarily due to space concerns in our shelters. The rate of cats entering shelters to cats euthanized equals 3.72 to one. At one point, I believe the ratio was 2 to one – or more - though there’s quite a bit of evidence that the rate of euthanasia has decreased in shelters across the country (Why Euthanasia Rates at Animal Shelters Have Plummeted). Speaking of those 1,066,667 owner-relinquished cats ending up in US shelters each year: almost 300,000 of those owner-relinquished cats EACH YEAR die before leaving the shelter (using our calculation of the rate of cats entering shelters to cats euthanized of 3.72 to one).

In summary, 1,066,667 cats relinquished by their owners enter shelters each year. And 860,000 cats (less than 1,066,667) are euthanized, many because of space concerns in our shelters. If we prevent the majority of owner surrenders each year, euthanization of cats in shelters due to space concerns will cease. Elimination of euthanasia for space concerns can be a reality; this is true even if we do nothing about unwanted litters and make sure our cats find their ways back to us when they get lost (we owe cats to address these issues, though). By saving the space in our shelters now taken by owner-surrendered pets, we safeguard the other cats brought to shelters from death. Let me repeat that: By helping most owners keep their cats, who would otherwise surrender their cats to a shelter, we can all but eliminate space-related euthanizations at shelters. Isn’t Remember Me Thursday about recognizing the value of each cat’s life and that each cat deserves a forever home instead of dying just because our shelters can’t handle the number of cats brought to them each year?

Many cats surrendered at shelters display fearful and frightened behavior due to new sights and smells and people and cats they don’t know. This adjustment period increases the likelihood that shelter staff misjudges cats’ temperaments and adoption possibilities. In a shelter, Bear would act frightened. Consequently, the resulting misjudgment of Bear’s temperament might mean a death sentence for him. By eliminating euthanasia for space concerns, these cats have the time to adjust to their surroundings and show their true selves – before being judged on their initial fear and stand-offishness. In cases where cats might be less friendly than other cats by nature or due to experience, eliminating euthanasia for shelter cats also means cats benefit from the time and space to find their forever homes. Brown et al. found that cats labeled by behavior as “approachable” or “interactive” stay in shelters for a much shorter time than cats labeled as “unapproachable.” Specifically, approachable cats’ time in a shelter amounted to roughly half that of unapproachable cats, and interactive cats’ length of stay was about one-third that of  “unapproachable” cats.

Weiss et al. define rehoming as giving one’s cat away to someone else to establish a new home for that cat. Rehoming includes giving one’s cat(s) to 1) a friend or family member, 2) a shelter, 3) a veterinarian, 4) a stranger or 5) no one (the cat finds itself dumped outside to fend for itself). In Weiss et al.’s study, owner relinquishment or owner surrenders includes only the second option – giving one’s cat(s) to a shelter. As for the extent of rehoming cats outside of the shelter environment, Weiss et al. found roughly the same percentage of people rehoming cats to a friend, family member or stranger (39% with a 95% confidence interval between 29-50%) and people taking their cats to the shelter (40% with a 95% confidence interval between 33-47%). For those of you who haven’t studied statistics, you’ll find the definition of a 95% confidence interval here: Statistics Dictionary: Confidence Interval. The significant overlap of the two confidence intervals means it’s likely that the number of cats privately rehomed to family, friends or strangers approximates the number of cats taken to the shelter (over one million cats each per year as we calculated above or TWO MILLION TOTAL). Avoiding rehoming outside the shelter environment (by helping people keep their cats) means that homes that now take privately rehomed cats can adopt cats (roughly one million given the number of cats privately rehomed each year) from a shelter. 

One final note on the numbers, since I’m using Weiss et al.’s study as one of my primary sources for this article – I want to clear up what seems to be a mismatch of numbers. Using the combination of data from the ASPCA and Weiss et al., we calculated 1,066,667 owner-relinquished cats ending up in US shelters each year. In Weiss et al.’s study, they quote the prevalence of rehoming at 6% over five years – or 6.12 million households rehoming at least one pet in the past five years. That statistic would indicate that 1,224,044 HOUSEHOLDS PER YEAR rehomed at least one pet (6.12 million/5). Please keep in mind one statistic quotes the number of owner-relinquished cats ending up in shelters as a gross number – and the other number includes cats AND dogs – and reports how many HOUSEHOLDS are rehoming to all sources. Using households as the measure means that even if multiple pets were rehomed, at the same time or at different times in those five years, no matter the actual number of pets rehomed, it would only count as one household. So while 1,066,667 owner-relinquished individual cats end up in US shelters each year, 1,224,044 HOUSEHOLDS each year rehome at least one pet.

Why people rehome pets

Now that we understand the extent of cats rehomed each year, we’ll evaluate why people rehome their cats and what we can do to help minimize the cases where owners feel the need to rehome their cats. After quite a bit of research and trying to group a myriad of reasons for rehoming into broad, over-arching categories, I like how Weiss et al. combined all chief reasons for rehoming into five different categories. The five categories containing all the principal reasons given for rehoming pets in Weiss et al.’s study, in decreasing order of prevalence for cats as determined in the study: 1) pet-associated issues, 2) family-associated issues, 3) housing-associated issues, 4) cost-associated issues and 5) other issues. Two earlier studies from New et al. and Salman et al. agree with Weiss et al.’s findings that pet-related issues (pet-specific characteristics, pet-specific behavior and pet-specific health issues) represent the largest share of reasons given for surrendering one’s cat to a shelter. These two studies break down the reasons for rehoming differently than Weiss et al., but one can quickly add up the figures in the charts of these studies relative to cats, following Weiss et al.’s classification system. New et al. and Salman et al.’s findings are identical to Weiss et al.’s in the order of issues leading to surrender - from highest to lowest: pet, family, housing, cost, etc.). 

Weiss et al.’s study looks at broader reasons for relinquishment and includes dogs in its overall conclusions (though I used the data tables to only count cats where possible). To find data for cats only, I reviewed Patronek et al.’s study on risk factors for relinquishment to shelters in cats only. Patronek et al.’s analysis exclude feral cats and litters of kittens brought to shelters. Excluding those two groups of cats makes sense in that both are not representative of the bond between cat and human - and aren’t relevant to the reasons cat are surrendered by their owners at shelters. Patronek et al.’s study found the following risk factors for cats surrendered to shelters by their owners: sexually intact cats, owners allowing the cats outside, owners not knowledgable about feline behavior, cats eliminating inappropriately at least weekly, incorrect owner expectations of the care cats require and owners’ narrowly defined expectations about their cats’ places in their households. Surprisingly, Patronek found that cats acquired with little planning were at DECREASED risk of being relinquished by their owners. 

I assumed people carefully considering an adoption decision would decrease the risk of later relinquishment. How can one NOT be tempted by all those cute little faces – without regard for the practical implications? Impulse adoptions SHOULD result in a higher chance of future relinquishment because adopters might not consider every practicality. I couldn’t corroborate Patronek et al.’s finding that minimally planned adoptions decrease the risk of a future relinquishment. However, I reviewed literature from shelters and rescues encouraging potential adopters to carefully consider the decision to adopt because impulse adoptions were at increased risk of relinquishment (without any research to support that assumption). In a later post, we’ll revisit this topic to address what many shelters/rescues encourage potential adopters to consider before adopting. While Patronek et al.’s finding that careful consideration of adopting a pet increases the risk of future relinquishment – I couldn’t find evidence to corroborate Patronek et al.’s conclusion. Logically, impulse adoptions SHOULD result in more relinquishment. 

Besides saving cats from shelters – the decision to rehome or not affects the people choosing to rehome or not. The company of a cat might be especially significant for people with family-associated issues like divorce, human health issues or housing issues (including for the elderly, who must give up their cats before entering a nursing home or assisted living facility). Stammbach et al. found that cats may function as substitutes for humans in a person’s social network - although cats provide a supplementary source of emotional support in the majority of cases.

Finding ways to help people keep their cats in these situations invaluably benefits cats and humans alike. Cats contribute to our mental and physical health - to read more about those benefits: 

• Does cat attachment have an effect on human health? A comparison between owners and volunteers (Dinis et al.). 
• Empirical Support for Therapy Animal Interventions.
• 10 Scientific Benefits of Being a Cat Owner. 
• How do cats help human health? 
• New Survey Finds that 85 Percent of Cat Owners Experience Therapeutic Benefits from Their Cat.

Speaking from personal experience, at the worst times of my life, whether due to severe abuse, a life-threatening eating disorder, debilitating PTSD, depression, anxiety, or divorce - my cats have made all the difference in my willingness to go on and fight. I shared the story of how Bear Cat saved my life in Imperfectly perfect ... together: The power of one cat's love. In summary:

Bear isn’t just my soul-mate cat or my “heart” cat; he is my “choosing life” cat. I chose to live because I found one extraordinary cat who changed EVERYTHING for me - when no human in my life wanted or knew how to be there for me. He isn’t just my emotional support cat (unofficially) helping me get through the day - he is THE REASON I got up every morning and why I did not give up even when I felt soul-shattering hopelessness. He did what he did without training, on pure instinct and without recognition or official designations: he just loved and valued me. With Bear in my life, I had something to live FOR - because he was by my side. I want to be clear: Bear didn’t just SAVE my life - he COMPLETELY transformed my existence into life - he GAVE me a life where there had been nothing. Because of Bear, where I experienced nothing but numbness in my past, I felt growth; where I felt nothing but pain in my past, I began to heal; where I felt nothing but emptiness in my past, I began to feel connectedness and purpose; where I felt nothing but irreparable brokenness, unbearable devastation and hopelessness in my past, I began to feel happiness and hope.

Keep in mind as you review the resources in our next post, the life-saving and life-transforming impact of sharing one’s life with a cat - especially in one’s darkest hours - whether by divorce, personal illness or disorienting change. Helping people keep their cats has meaning beyond the cats saved: those cats might be the difference between life and death for their humans.

Now that we’ve established the benefits to people and their cats by keeping cats in their homes, our next post includes resources for the most common reasons owners surrender their cats. We can all help minimize the number of people who feel the need to surrender their cats - to shelters or elsewhere. Perhaps when someone mentions the possibility of giving up her cat, instead of judging that person, we should point her in the right direction for resources to help the situation. If the person refuses to work on the issue or doesn’t follow through, that’s on her. But by instantly judging her, we give up the ability to have a conversation, listen to her concerns and share the numerous resources available out there to help people keep their cats.

Sources