June is Adopt-A-Cat month

 

By Ed Boks

The Yavapai Humane Society (YHS) is celebrating Adopt-A-Cat month by waiving our adoption fee for all cats five years of age and older.  When you adopt any adult cat from YHS your pet comes with 30 days of pet insurance, a FVRCP combo vaccine, microchip, physical exam, flea treatment, ear mite exam/treatment, spay/neuter surgery, and deworming, all together valued at $402 – and this does not count the satisfaction that comes from saving a life.  (Upon request a feline leukemia and FIV blood test, valued at $38, is available for just $25.)

Does offering cats for free mean YHS values them less?  No, it means we value them more because we invest in our cats to ensure they are not contributing to cat overpopulation or the spread of feline diseases.

The Animal Refuge League in Westbrook Maine conducted a fee waived adoption event for several months.  Afterwards they surveyed adopters from two groups: those who paid an adoption fee for a cat and those whose adoption fee was waived. 

The survey asked 23 questions rated on a 1-4 scale: strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, and strongly disagree.  Queries included:

• My cat means more to me than any of my friends

• Quite often I confide in my cat

• I believe cats should have the same rights and privileges as family members

• I believe my cat is my best friend

• My feelings toward people are affected by the way they react to my cat

• I love my cat because he/she is more loyal to me than most of the people in my life

• I believe that the shelter where I adopted my cat perceives cats to be valuable; and

• I would return to the shelter in the future to adopt another animal.

The results were startling to the animal welfare community.  The study found no significant difference in the scores between the two groups.  Most interesting there was no significant difference in the two questions related to the shelters, which were: “I believe the shelter perceives cats to be valuable” and “I would return to the shelter in the future to adopt another animal”.

Another significant finding was that a cat’s average length of stay in a shelter is significantly reduced when the fee is waived.  We probably didn’t need a survey to tell us that, but what it means is that the revenue lost by waiving the fee is offset by not keeping the cats in the shelter for extended lengths of time. 

For example, the average length of stay of a cat at YHS is 27 days at a cost of $10 per day.  When you add the $270 length of stay cost to the $402 investment explained above a cat’s value skyrockets to $672.  Our regular cat adoption fee is $25.  So when we adopt a cat on day 27 for the standard adoption fee we lose $647.  However, when we adopt a cat for free on day two (the average length of stay for fee waived cats) we lose only $422.

YHS can have over 200 cats in the shelter at any given time.  When these highly cared for cats are adopted in two days as opposed to 27 days the savings escalate to over $50,000 - making adopting a cat for free from YHS not only the most compassionate thing you can do, but the most fiscally responsible as well.

Just by adopting a cat from YHS in June, you will help solve the cat overpopulation problem, reduce cat disease, and help make Yavapai County the safest pet community in the U.S.

Ed Boks is the executive director of the Yavapai Humane Society.  He can be reached at eboks@yavapaihumane.org or by calling 445-2666, ext. 21.