Meowy Monday—How the Pandemic Has Affected the World’s Cat Population

Humans weren’t the only affected during the events of 2020-2021. Animals were too. I found an interesting study showing how our household cats were affected during this time—what they were up against and how this changed their behavior. Interesting study. As most of us know, a lot of cats (and other pets) were being adopted during that difficult time and some of those were abandoned once their people went back to work. Here’s the rest of that story:

https://blog.feliway.com/us/how-covid-19-lockdowns-affected-our-cats

But there were other things going on in the background. Shelters had to close, trap-neuter-release programs were halted, and sadly a whole lot of cats were euthanized. I don’t quite understand the rational for that. But one statistic shows that there are 100,000 more cats in shelters now than before the pandemic. It looks like we’re losing ground on our attempts to save homeless cats and it will take time to catch up. But the sad truth is that only about half of the cats, dogs, and other animals that end up in a shelter are adopted. And we’re talking millions of animals being left behind.

There is so much work being done on behalf of all animals, but it’s still not enough and a large part of the problem is us. Too many people in the US still don’t take responsibility for neutering their cats, for example. This is just one small thing we can do to save cats in the future from homelessness and starvation.

I’m writing this just to remind you that the plight of starvation and illness and loneliness and danger for millions of cats in America and the world is not over. They still need our help and support. Advocate for them when and however you can and, for the sake of the cat population and the plight of so many individual cats, have your cats neutered.