Cat Keeping in the US and UK Compared

by Sarah Hartwell
View Biography

Britain has an estimated 7 million pet cats, less than 10% being pedigrees. The United States has around 60 million pet cats, 40% being pedigrees. Around a quarter of British households own cats compared to nearly a third of American households. Many American cat lovers prefer to call themselves 'caregivers' rather than owners.

The Persian and the Siamese are the most popular breeds both sides of the Atlantic, but after that, national pride takes over with the British Shorthair coming third over here and the Maine Coon looking set to oust the Abyssinian from third place in the US.

For many elderly or disabled persons a cat is their family. In the US, many landlords are now required by law to allow people moving into sheltered accommodation to keep a single indoor cat as long as they are capable of looking after it. This is a very positive move for people moving into sheltered housing.

Despite a high rate of neutering, the US has cat overpopulation problems. Although there are 'no-kill shelters' for cats, 80% of cats presented to shelters never find new homes. Cats over 5 years old are hard to re-home and cats over 10 years old stand little chance of being adopted. Pure economics means that many of these are euthanized. Many animal pounds are legally obliged to sell this surplus of un-homed animals to research laboratories.

The overpopulation problem includes 26 million feral cats. Attempts at wholesale eradication failed and several American groups have been set up along the lines of Cat Action Trust to control the feral population through neutering. The first such group, Alley Cat Allies, is now a national organization providing information to humane societies and individuals involved in TTVAR (Trap-Test-Vaccinate-Alter-Return) Projects.

Indoors or Out?

90% of British cats have free access to outdoors. According to surveys, about a quarter of American cats are able to go outdoors. The main reasons for confining a cat indoors is fear of diseases such as rabies, dangerous wildlife, road accidents and cat theft.

This indoor lifestyle is reflected in other statistics. In Britain un-neutered toms are more acceptable as pets than they are in the US. An un-castrated tom makes for a pungent indoor-only pet! Conversely, un-spayed females are more common as pets in the States than in Britain; since indoor-only females don't risk unplanned pregnancies.

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