CAT LICENSING
  A Clear and Present Danger

All cats deserve loving, permanent homes with responsible caregivers that safely confine and care for their cat's needs. This is the goal of all animal protectors. However, millions of cats do not fit this category and are at risk from current legislative efforts to license cats.

Many communities are turning to cat legislation as a panacea that will solve the problem of surplus cats. According to proponents, mandatory cat licensing will put an end to the problem of stray and abandoned cats, raise the status of felines, increase funding for budget-strapped animal control agencies and make cat owners more responsible. All we need to do is pass a law. It sounds too good to be true. Actually, it is!

Major components for laws require all cats to be licensed, confined or supervised when outdoors; have identification, vaccination and sterilization; and mandate all caregivers register with animal control. A registration fee is also required by all caregivers. "People will be compelled to do the right thing simply because it's the law," according to Animal Sheltering, a publication of the Humane Society of the United States.

As is the case with most animal related legislation, laws are passed not to protect animals, but to accommodate people. For cats, the stakes are high. In this case, millions of cats, found to be in violation of the law, could lose their lives. Cats that are loved, precious members of American households are in danger of being inadvertently swept up and killed, simply because they are unidentified.

Cat caretakers are also at risk of financial penalties. These caretakers will have to pay license fees, a "cat tax"; on each of the cats they care for or face citations, fines, penalties, and possible confiscation of the animals they love. Thousands of caretakers make sure a shy and reclusive neighborhood cat has daily sustenance. At their personal expense, caretaker's work tirelessly to feed, foster and rehabilitate feral cats and kittens and maintain feral colonies. Licensing laws will hamper efforts and force many compassionate caretakers, many with limited means, to stop providing for homeless cats. More cats will be left to fend for themselves with fewer people to help them.

Many people casually or loosely own cats. These compassionate people provide abandoned, free-roaming cats withfood, love and shelter in or around their homes. Unfortunately, their commitment to these cats is fragile. If money becomes a factor, many people will simply return the cat. They will state they never owned the cat and they were just providing humane care.

Most dog owners ignore licensing laws. Cat licensing would certainly be no exception. King County, WA has had a cat license law in effect for close to 30 years. To date they have licensed about 10% of all owned cats.

Irresponsible owners won't be affected. If fined, they are likely to surrender or abandon their animals, which will only add to the number of cats killed.

Failure to comply with the law means impoundment into shelters where only two cats (mostly kittens) in ten come out alive. Adult feral cats are unadoptable. They die as soon as their mandatory hold expires. Additionally, a great deal of animal control work involves responding to citizen complaints. License laws give angry, cat-hating neighbors more authority to trap and seize a neighbor's roaming cat — a loved and cherished cat occasionally allowed outdoors.

The fact is licensing laws explicitly authorize the impoundment and killing of millions of cats, just for being unlicensed. A good portion of these impounded cats will be cherished family members, rounded-up by unwitting animal control officers and spiteful neighbors.

What's very disturbing is the fact that these laws are being passed with very little objective scientific study, free of political agendas. If studies were referenced, they would discover these critical facts:

No one uniform entity can be defined as "the indigenous cat."

There is a continuum of lifestyles between the feral cat existence and that of the pampered household pet." To understand the nature of cats is to recognize the great diversity that exists within the species. Some cats are truly domesticated, part of people’s homes and lives, while others survive in the wild, avoiding humans and become part of the ecosystem. It is important to acknowledge the different segments of the cat population, understanding the relationship between human beings and recognize the cats ecological role.

Almost every neighborhood in America has feral, unsocialized cats that subsist in self-regulating colonies of similar cats living primarily on human refuse and vermin.

Because cats exhibit varying degrees of sociability, even an animal care and control professional may not immediately be able to tell the difference between a feral cat and a frightened indoor-only cat that is out roaming the neighborhood without identification.

Many cat owners fail to put collars with identification on their cat in fear the cat will strangle itself. Many owners who try to obey the law and use breakaway collars lose the tags when the collar does as it is intended.

Unowned, feral and free-roaming cats comprise 40% more cats than owned cats, roughly 20 to 25 million in America.

Close to two-thirds of the public allow their cats to roam outdoors. These owners are committed to the idea this is necessary to the pet's well being and happiness. Many of these owners are good, law abiding citizens. When owners are confronted with mandates that contradict their perception of cat's needs, they discreetly resist those mandates.

Over 80% of owned, household cats are sterilized. The vast majority of feral cats are not.

Attempts to eradicate feral, free-roaming cats by trapping and killing have not proven successful. Due to the presence of a consistent food source, new colonies quickly emerge.

Fertile feral and free-roaming cats supply two-thirds of the kittens to American households and represent a bulk of the overpopulation problem.

It is true that cat licensing will result in more cat redemption. Cats will be reclaimed at a higher rate than the low 1.5% that is now realized nationally. Unfortunately, the number of cats reclaimed will not come close to the number of cats killed if the law is enforced.

At the heart of the matter is the lure of raising revenue for money-starved animal control agencies. Cat owners should have to pay-up just like dog owners, so the thinking goes. Unfortunately, the potential to help cats is negligible. Low compliance rates are historical. Attempts at aggressive marketing and promotion of licensing drives-up administration costs. Enforcement requires additional officers. More animal control doesn't mean better cat welfare. Additionally, rising administration costs usurp funds that should go to more beneficial programs.

If cat licensing is fully implemented and enforced it will result in more cats being impounded in shelters. The cats that have identification, are impounded and returned to owners will not offset increases in cats that are impounded, not claimed and consequently, euthanized. Cat legislation results in campaigns targeting unowned, feral and free roaming cats. Mandatory cat licensing will inadvertently kill beloved household cats and increase the killing of unowned feral cats. Although billed as an animal protection program, cat licensing will have an adverse effect on cats and have very little impact on the surplus cat problem.