this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2024
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Dumb question, but is it common for cats to end up in shelters? As I understand, they tend to fare not too badly as stray cats.
Do they get put in shelters when they're too old/sickly to hunt? Or are cats raised as housecats not good enough at it? Or do we generally put cats into shelters, because we don't want them to hunt and obliterate the local wildlife?
Totally not a dumb question tbh - the answer probably also highly depends on where you’re from.
In Germany (also highly depends on county/city) yes, they do normally fare pretty well and shelters often operate multiple feeding stations where there are a lot of strays. So they get to know the „local strays“ and can keep an eye on them via volunteers and cams.
When a cat is visibly sick, they catch them at this station, treat them and if the cat is alright, oftentimes release them again - shelters are notoriously full and money ist scarce for these organisations unfortunately…
However, if there are conditions that make life for this cat (or others - e.g. FIV) dangerous, they are normally kept in the shelter and then opened for adoption as a „only indoors cat“.
Also, older cats often end up in shelters because they often belonged to older people - and when they can’t care for the cats anymore, have to move or die one day, the cats have to go somewhere too.