Cats Count in Canada: A National Stage for a Local Issue

Cats Count in
Canada:
A National Stage
for a
Local Issue
What we will talk about together today
• Scope and scale of the crisis; research results including a
comparison with 2012 shelter data
• Provincial and local approaches
• National strategy
Cats Count in Canada is a ground breaking, multistakeholder research project on cats in Canadian
communities including;
1. Convening an expert national taskforce;
2. Data and thinking from more than 475
shelters, rescues, TNR, spay/neuter
organizations, municipalities and veterinarians;
3. A market survey to better understand current
pet ownership, population and the capacity of
Canadians to home cats;
4. Literature review and case studies;
5. Stakeholder meetings in 8 provinces.
6. A National Action Plan
MARKET SURVEY RESULTS
MARKET SURVEY
Conducted by Nanos Research to determine the prevalence of
cat ownership and the number of cats in each cat owning household.
Variable Description
Nanos 2012
Ipsos 2008
A
Number of Households Canada
(Statscan)
% of households with a cat
14,569,633
13,576,855
37.7%
35.5%
Number of households with cats
[A x B]
Average number of cats per
household
5,492,752
4,819,784
1.85
1.76
Number of owned cats with
households [C x D]
10,161,591
8,482,819
B
C
D
E
“How many of the cats in your
household were from the following sources”
Two in three Canadians (65.7%)
said they would NOT consider adopting a cat as a pet
While one in three (34.3%) said they would
consider it!
Cat owning households report an 80% spay/neuter rate
That indicates more than 2 million unaltered
owned cats!
MULTI-STAKEHOLDER SURVEY
Respondent Profile
HSa
SPCA
TNR
Mun.b
Vet.c
Rescue
S/Nd
Other
Total
NL
0
6
1
14
5
0
1
0
27
PEI
1
1
0
0
9
0
1
1
13
NS
2
8
2
1
26
3
1
1
44
NB
0
7
3
1
11
1
0
1
24
QC
4
3
2
3
60
5
1
2
80
ON
13
1
1
13
32
9
4
2
75
MB
3
1
2
17
11
3
1
1
39
SK
3
4
0
0
32
2
0
0
41
AB
6
2
0
5
46
4
0
0
63
0
NT, YK, NU 0
37
0
4
0
4
3
12
1
11
0
0
0
0
0
68
4
Total
70
15
61
245
38
9
8
478
BC
32
In your opinion, is there a cat overpopulation
problem in your municipality?
78% said YES!
51% of Shelters, Rescues and TNR believe the
problem is severe;
Whereas only 20% of Vets agree
Available Solutions
Figure 6: “What practices, if any, does your community have in
place that address cat overpopulation?”
Effectiveness of Solutions
Figure 9: “Would you say that the following methods used by your community have been successful,
somewhat successful, neither successful nor unsuccessful, somewhat unsuccessful, or unsuccessful at
addressing cat overpopulation?” pertaining to animal control collapsed into four categories.
Sheltering Cats
Overpopulation in Numbers
Nanos Stakeholder Survey – Homeless Cats –
Sheltered
N 164
Total Intake of Cats
150,350
Adopted Out
65,249 (43%)
Reclaimed by Owner
7,140 (less than ½%)
Euthanized
59,939 (39%)
Net new number of cats without a home
18,022
Overpopulation in Numbers
Variable
A
B
C
D
E
Description
Number of respondents with cat intake data
Number of cats euthanized
Number of cats waiting for adoption
Total number of homeless-sheltered cats (B+C)
Average annual number of homeless-sheltered cats
per responding shelter (D/A)
Total
164
59,939
18,022
77,961
475
F
G
H
G
Estimate number of municipal animal services
Estimate number of Humane Societies and SPCAs
Total estimated number of shelters (G+H)
Projected number of homeless-sheltered cats (ExH)
1135
210
1345
638,875
A Matter of Capacity…..!
Stakeholder
Average Holding
Capacity
% of Capacity
2011
% of Capacity
2012
Humane Society
187 animals
90%
91%
SPCA
124 animals
95%
92%
TNR
42 animals
93%
80%
Municipalities
103 animals
72%
66%
Rescues
68 animals
91%
85%
Spay/Neuter Groups
30 animals
100%
100%
Other
166
95%
97%
Aggregate Average
114 animals
89%
86%
Shelters across the country are at or near capacity to care for the cats that are brought to
their doors. In no other statistic is the crisis of overpopulation revealed more – as a country,
Canada has all but run out of space for new cats produced without adequate concern for
housing, sterilization or health of animals roaming at-large.
Who’s Being Surrendered ……….
Surrendered by owner
Surrendered strays/ by nonowner
Cats
Dogs
Cats
Dogs
N
145
113
150
121
Mean
226
148
585
302
Total
32,755
16,731
87,770
36,548
Other (N=10)
Owner health (N=18)
……and Why?
Too much time/responsibility (N=43)
Financial Reasons (N=17)
Animal behaviour (N=14)
Housing (N=53)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Live Release
Animal
Total
Received in
2011
Average
intake
Reclaimed
Average
reclaimed
Adopted
% youth
Cat
150,350
917
7,139 (<1%)
5
65,249
46%
Dog
70,302
537
20,856 (30%)
161
27,058
28%
Spay/Neuter on Live Release
Table 4: “Does your organization have cats spayed or neutered?” by
organization
Accessible Spay/Neuter
Accessible Spay/Neuter
Euthanasia: the starkest
outcome
of the cat
population crisis
Stakeholders across the spectrum are working hard to reduce
the need for euthanasia which requires a reduction in population
and an increase in viable homes.
Response to question “Does your organization euthanize cats?” by organization
Euthanasia……
Received
Number euthanized
% juvenile
Cats
Dogs
Cats
Dogs
Kittens
Puppies
Mean
917
537
512
97
20%
4%
Sum
N
150,350
164
70,302
131
59,939 (40%)
117
10,082 (14%)
104
…..and
Why?
Reason for Euthanasia
CATS
Kittens DOGS
Puppies
Illness/ change in status
87.7% 81.7%
78.9% 75.0%
Animal behaviour
67.2% 47.0%
90.8% 18.8%
Lack of space
28.7% 24.3%
9.2%
Affordability of medical treatment
22.1% 16.5%
15.6% 12.5%
5.2%
Feral and
Homeless-at-large
Table 35: “Does your organization care for a feral cat colony?” By
organization
Veterinarian Response
• Almost half (43%) provide services to cat shelters, 40% dog
shelters, 39% to dog rescues, 38% to cat rescues, 23% to
TNR groups, and 19% to other groups.
• Vets were more likely to offer spay/neuter surgeries to
groups such as rescues than any other services and were
most likely to offer the surgeries at a discount.
• Vets, on average, offer a discount of 30 to 41% for
treatment.
• The highest discount offered was spay/neuter at 42%.
• Vets were more likely to offer cats for adoption than dogs - (92.8%) said they
offered cats for adoption, while nearly as many (89.9%) said they offered kittens.
Fewer veterinarians said the same in regards to dogs (46.4% of responses) or
puppies (37.7%).
• 63.8% of veterinarians who shared their views said that they did not assign
permanent ID before adoption.
• Vet were somewhat more likely to say that their clinic did not euthanize cats and
dogs for non-medical reasons (55.6%) than to say that they did (44.4%).
• Animal behaviour most likely reason for euthanizing on non-medical grounds.
Recommendations
Recommendations
Stakeholder Recommendations
• Accessible Spay/Neuter
• Public Education – responsible pet
ownership and increase the value of cats
• Legislation and adequate enforcement
Report Recommendations
• CFHS provides 27 recommendations in each key
research area based on the results and literature
In Comparison……
CFHS 2012 Shelter Statistics
How does that compare 2011 to 2012?
Who responded? 2011: 102
2012: 100
Animal
Received in Received
2011
in 2012
Cat
123,746
119,198
Dog
54,978
53,085
Reclaimed
in 2011
5,973
(<1/2%)
15,213
(27%)
Reclaimed Adopted
in 2012
in 2011
4,823
(<1/2%)
14,879
(28%)
Adopted
in 2012
56,123
54,270
24,959
25,379
Euthanasia in Comparison
Animal
Received in Received in Euthanized
2011
2012
in 2011
Euthanized in
2012
Cat
123,746
119,198
52,184 (42%)
52,547 (44%)
Dog
54,978
53,085
8,774 (15%)
8741 (16%)
6 Year Comparison
6 Year Comparison
Provincial Meetings
Provincial Meetings
PEI
NS
NB
QC
ON
MB
SK
AB
Total
HSa
SPCA
TNR Mun. Vet.
Rescue S/N Provincial Other Total
2
0
0
0
7
14
2
2
4
3
0
0
2
1
0
1
0
0
1
1
0
2
1
1
2
20
2
3
6
33
7
0
13
9
50
4
1
0
1
14
17
1
2
6
29
5
3
7
0
18
14
10
12
8
45
2
0
0
1
5
0
11
1
1
6
3
1
17
13
14
19
34
80
17
40
33
251
Top 4 Common Action Areas
1. Increased Collaboration and Cooperation among Stakeholders
including
• Leadership
• Professionalism (including standards and data)
• stronger alignment across groups with common messaging
• Formalizing relationships
• Common Strategy
2. Universal, accessible s/n
• Affordable vet services
• Mobile clinics
• High volume
Top 4 Common Action Areas
3. Relationship building with veterinarians and with municipalities
• Case for cat overpopulation
• Presentations to council
4. Increase the value of cats;
• Education
• Festivals
• media
Provincial Results to Date
• PEIHS selected for Capacity For Care proof-of-model project with
Dr. Kate Hurley via funding and coordination by the CFHS.
• PEI Companion Animal Welfare Initiative, a collaboration of
animal welfare stakeholders with goals to increase animal welfare
public education and to be active in the revisions of PEI
companion animal protection legislation.
• Hosting quarterly low-cost microchip clinics, in collaboration with
municipalities and community organizations
• Initiated "Check for a Chip" program with PEI veterinary
community during Animal Health Week 2014 to encourage clinics
to play a more active role in returning more stray animals to their
owners and to promote the importance of microchips to their
clients as a part of basic responsible pet ownership.
Provincial Results to Date
• New Brunswick is maintaining education and
spay/neuter and working towards great collaboration
amongst stakeholders
• In PQ the CFHS report was issued while there was a
provincial committee in Quebec examining, among other
things, ways to counter cat overpopulation. The
committee has since issued recommendations to the
minister (done in March 2013).
Provincial Results to Date
• The OVMA, OSPCA and AASAO struck a Joint Taskforce
to address the issue in Ontario. The Taskforce, born out
of discussions at the CFHS’ ON strategic planning
meeting last year, held its first meeting on April 9th and
catalogued a variety of issues that need to be
addressed to tackle the broader cat overpopulation
issue, and will meet in May to set priorities. The goal
of the Task Force is to develop a coordinated,
comprehensive strategy to address the cat
overpopulation issue in Ontario that is workable for all
3 organizations. As a component of its discussions, it is
addressing the issue of shelter access to affordable
routine veterinary care.
Provincial Results to Date
• We hoped to be moving towards a spay/neuter clinic at the
meeting in October. Unfortunately that was not supported during
budget deliberations – but we will be putting it in again next
year!!! As well we are working on implementing Meet Your Match
to help improve our adoption rates. (BAS)
• We are launching a Pet Owner Loyalty Card Program here in
Markham on May1st to promote the licensing of cats. We have
also just completed a Targeted TNR Project with the OSPCA and cat
rescue group in March and will be reporting on the possible
construction of a Cat Adoption Centre in one of our community
centres. (MAS)
• Since going to the Cats Count in Canada seminar, GTHS has
launched two assistance spay/neuter programs in the Georgian
Triangle area.
Provincial Results to Date
• Toronto Feral Cat Project is merging with Urban Cat Relief to
leverage strengths and charitable status to further our abilities to
support TNR in the GTA and beyond. We support the F.E.R.A.L.
Centre and working on Public Education and Outreach campaigns.
TFCP and UCR jointly held a free seminar in Toronto on March 9
that was attended by 250 from around the province.
• Coalition Cat-A-thon last fall held at City Hall in Toronto. We had
feral cats at Nathan Phillips Square reaching out to the public and
talking about TNR and cat population crisis, The mayor made a
declaration for Feral Cats. This was an unprecedented event for
Toronto....wow.
• The City of Vaughan has recently passed an amended by-law that
will restrict pet store sourcing of dogs and cats to animal shelters,
rescues, or humane societies … they will no longer be permitted to
sell commercially-bred dogs and cats.
Provincial Results to Date
• KWHS we adopted new euthanasia policy in 2013 - Every Animal
Deserves a Chance - which resulted in euthanasia rates of 14% in
Kitchener-Waterloo and 7% in Stratford-Perth. We are working on
regional spay/neuter for low to no income community and as
helter clinic opening in late May which will assist community TNR
programs
• London Animal Care Centre committed to continue to focus on
education on responsible pet ownership, both through
conversations with and literature provided to adopters, and
through social media conversations.
• I wanted to expand our TNR program and run it through the
winter. Even with such a cold and harsh one we were able to
alter 79 cats between November 1st and March 31st. I will look
forward to surpassing that goal next year! (HBSPCA)
Provincial Results to Date
•
An action the Winnipeg Humane Society undertook was a spay
promotion in February called “Beat The Heat”. The goal was to
spay 500 cats in a month! We did it! The project was partially
funded by Petsmart Charities of Canada. The response from the
public was overwhelming! We were fully booked by mid-January.
•
I committed to a presentation regarding community cats in
Winnipeg which was made on Jan. 31, 2014. Present were
representatives from Winnipeg Animal Services, D'Arcy's ARC, and
the Provincial Vet. (Craig Street Cats)
*****
Provincial Results to Date
Two priority areas to update on from SK:
• Based on survey results, a cat overpopulation working
group is being established and meeting in June to
develop terms of reference; the steering committee will
consist of one representative from each
organization/group interested in being involved with the
working group.
• In October, 2013 the Regina Humane Society
coordinated the bulk purchase of microchips.
*****
Provincial Results to Date
• Since this important meeting in AB we have worked in partnership
with the 2 main rescue agencies in Red Deer to share data and
information. This collaborative approach led to our first joint
initiative, a free microchip clinic , on April 5th, 2014, micro
chipping 209 owned cats in two locations in one day! Without the
information given at the Provincial cat meeting and sense of
urgency that it created, I doubt we would have been as motivated
to start working toward finding a solution. Eventually we hope to
work towards a free spay/neuter clinic day. With the statistical
support we have the evidence and motivation to put some real
resources towards future cat projects like the Cat Movie Festival.
• We started a Cat Spay-Neuter project which has been meeting.
Nancy Larsen from ABSNTF is leading it.
National Strategy
Shelter Level: Capacity for Care, tools to reduce euthanasia, tools to
increase flow through, tools for SNR
Accessible Spay/Neuter: access spay/neuter report and tool kit,
advocating with politicians and stakeholders
Public education: cats need a publicist!
Community Support :
advocating for tools and resources
for local responses to cat issues.
A word about Just for Cats
THANK YOU!!!
For copies of the reports visit www.cfhs.ca
To find out if Just for Cats is coming to a
theatre near you visit www.justforcats.ca
To contact me: barbara@cfhs.ca