Animals - do cats count?

When I talk with people who volunteer with animal rescue groups in our area, often they express frustration that "cats don't seem to count."  It's true in some ways.  We have breed clubs and affiliated rescue programs around for different dog breeds, as well as "all breed" types of foster and adoption programs.  There are groups that tout their concern for animal population control and for animal protection, yet don't seem to recognize that their own skills leave felines unprotected.  Dogs, dogs, dogs and even dogs and litterboxes, they talk about, but never a thought as to how to keep cats safe.  I once spent weeks and weeks just trying to locate a humane investigator in the area who could research a cruelty incident involving a cat, without thinking about the incident as though the victim were a canine.

It's a vicious cycle.  Over the past few decades, animal welfare has been so focussed on DOG welfare that the general public does not think of cats as special, or unique, or in many cases as needing or deserving care and safekeeping.  One authority on cat welfare issues on the national level works today at teaching people how to see the unique personality and appearance of each individual cat in a shelter or other program.  It's a start.

And cat lovers are frustrated, too, because a lot of animal shelters act as if cats were nothing more than small breeds of dogs.  Cats are quite different than dogs in terms of their general temperament, their requirements for care and what brings out the best in them as far as potential adopters are concerned. 

Cats are America's most popular pet -- more households own more cats than any other species of pet.  So why is it that the cat-loving public does not more pointedly and effectively object when cats are abused, or even destroyed "because we don't have space," or because "we've got to choose our battles," or because "no one wants to adopt them?"

I've concluded that cat lovers are a lot more adaptable than other pet owners.  They are individuals, and may not think that how they treat their pet has anything to do with how their pet would be handled if he became a shelter inmate.  Cat lovers routinely can be found volunteering for dog-centric organizations and programs.  They will donate to organizations that clearly and publicly denigrate cats in favor of dogs.  And cat lovers also allow themselves to be the target of stereotypical images and "jokes" that would otherwise not be considered politically correct.  The "cat lady" exists mainly because communities have failed to step up and address the needs of neighborhood cats.  Turning shame back on the very people who have selflessly taken on the community's burden is a mean thing, in more ways than one.

Cats deserve to count.  It's time for cat lovers to stand up for cats!