Our problem is also the people who randomly breed an animal without considering the consequences. These are the people who contribute to the unwanted cats and have them appearing in shelters in the first place. How many purebreds do you see in your local shelter? Most cats there were bred accidentaly or 'allowed to breed' with feral or free-roaming cats. Someone who wants a kitten can choose between going to a shelter or getting one from someone who's just bred a bunch of moggies and is advertising in the local newspaper. Most likely, they'll go for the easier and 'safer' route and get the advertised cats. The kittens in the shelter may still be adopted by someone - but that someone may have otherwise gone for an adult in the shelter. The adult will have to die. Also, I have to say I usualy agree with CFC but not in this case. You cannot compare a cat to most fish. For a start, cats live far longer than most fish. They also are a more 'hands-on' type of animal. They require interaction and much more stimulation. If you get a kitten, you have to spend time with it and ensure it grows to be a healthy cat, if you get an adult, you have to teach it to adapt to its new environment. A fish doesn't need to adapt to living with humans - it will behave pretty much based on instincts and as it would in teh wild (if it is in the right environment). If it is not treated well, it will sucumb to stress and disease and likely die. A cat will suffer many years or be abandoned. As a result, it could be put to sleep. A fish may be returned - but the LFS will try to sell it on. No LFS I know will kill fish if there's a chance of selling them. Also, I live in teh UK. I also volunteered at a local RSPCA shelter. There were almost always 3 new-born litters of kittens at any one time. That is about 18 individual mix-breed kittens available for adoption. Yes, they would be reserved and be gone almost immediately as soon as they were old enough. Their mothers, on the other hand (which were also often there with the younger cats), would often spend week upon week stuck in the shelter. Sometimes they'd be taken, sometimes they'd be put to sleep. As for the 18 kittens - they'd go to new homes. The 40 or so adult cats that were also housed there, however, would be left in favour of the cute little kitties that would soon also grow into big cats with their own quirks and faults. In my opinion, all cats of mixed-lineage (I know purebreds would still have to be bred) should be neutered as soona s they are old enough. This isn't just better so as to reduce the number of unwanted cats on the streets and in our shelters, it is also a procedure which lengthens most cats' lives and makes them less prone to all sorts of conditions (eg cancer). It also means they'll feel less inclined to wander large distances (an uneatered tom has a very large territory - one that has been castrated will remain within a much smaller radius and may even be kept incdoors without problems) and they can be kept as indoor-only cats much more comfortably and I am sure everyone understands the benefits of that. Having said that, I think the UK is pretty good about keeping the feral population down - I don't see that many cats on the streets (compared to other countries I've lived in) BUT a lot of those cats do end up in shelters where, realy, they aren't that much better off and are often left there, to be put to sleep, by people who choose to adopt a kitten instead of a cat. IMO, and I know this is controversial, no one should be breeding their pet cat while there are so many kittens out there already. Instead, go reserve all the kittens that get brought in to your local shelter. Raise THOSE for a while in place of your own cat's kittens and then try to find homes for THOSE kittens instead of adding to them with your own.
I would like to add that at one point I owned 29 cats. They were all strays I had taken in and were of various ages. One was a mother with 7 young kittens in tow. All were neutered and vaccinated as soon as they were of the right age (where applicable). I appreciate that people wouuld like to adopt kittens and bond and raise them etc - fair enough - but I would like to see fewer people ADDING to the available kittens. If we can get all the adults adopted first, people can start looking into getting kittens later. Even if every responsible person neutered their cats and made sure they didn't breed, there would still be strays and kittens looking for homes so there would never realy be a shortage. There is no need for those of us who are responsible though, to contribute to the number.
