Why Do Cats Get Ignored in Shelters?
Everyone who has ever had a cat knows the joy and love they can bring into your life. We all have a different story of how we got our cat.
Some people go to a shelter, others just find their cat in the woods or on the street, I've even heard of cats adopting themselves into the family. Some go to breeders, and of course others get theirs free from a friend or family member.
What's wrong with this? Only two of these have the cat costing any money at all. Shelters of course charge adoption fees and breeders cost money as well.
However, since there are so many free ways of getting a kitten, shelters have to charge very little for their cats. Some shelters are lucky and can break even or make a little money from their cats, other shelters lose money.
So why do cats get ignored in shelters?
Simple. Money.
Adopters are willing to pay up to 400 dollars or more to adopt a dog, however, are quick to judge shelters for their cat adoption fees. To put this in perspective, the average cat adoption fee in my state (Washington) is 75 dollars for an adult cat, 125 dollars for a kitten under six months, and only 35 dollars for a senior or special needs cats.
"I can get a kitten free somewhere else," is a common response to shelter's cat adoption fees.
In return, shelters focus on the dogs, limited admission (no kill) shelters work hard to get their dogs adopted, quickly getting a photo of them on petfinder, and using their social media pages. In hopes of getting all the dogs adopted, so a new transport from an open admission (kill) shelter can come full of dogs.
Some shelters will have 2-3 drop offs of these dogs in a month. The cats? Oh yes, the little love bugs who fill our hearts with joy that no one wants to pay maximum 125 dollars for? It's extremely rare for a drop off of cats from a kill shelter. Personally, I've never heard about one or seen one.
Hopefully they are adopted with very little promotion from the open admission shelters, while the ones in the limited admission sit and wait for much longer than any of the dogs.
The extra money from the adoptions fees go back to the shelter. Dogs are shelter's biggest money makers. Why spend the time promoting cats when people are going to complain about paying for and will also struggle to be adopted anyways?
Shelters try their best, however, when adopters overwhelming are more willing to spend hundreds (sometimes thousands) of dollars on dogs and zero on cats then dogs will understandably be their main priority while cats will continue to be ignored.
