Cat Overpopulation: The Issue

Every day, thousands upon thousands of kittens are born.  The kittens can be born to a family pet, a stray cat that is living on the street or a feral cat that has lived outside in a colony for generations.  As each kitten grows it begins to produce more kittens, those kittens grow up and start to reproduce and the cycle becomes endless.

In Winnipeg, the cat overpopulation problem is particularly bad.  All animal rescue shelters are full all of the time, but there is still a continuous stream of cats and kittens that need help.  There are simply too many cats and not enough homes for all of them.  

Having such a large number of cats living on the streets is problematic to both the cats themselves and the community.  The cats pose a health risk to humans and other animals as they defecate anywhere they please, get into trash, and carry deadly diseases such as rabies.  They also may scare away wildlife, such as birds, or frighten small children.

The Winnipeg Humane Society believes the problem needs to be addressed at the very root—as many cats need to be spayed or neutered as possible to prevent the unwanted litters that make up the bulk of the overpopulation problem.

The WHS clinic preformed over 6,500 spay and neuter surgeries in 2008, which sounds like a lot, but the cat overpopulation problem doesn’t seem to be subsiding.  To see any sort of a different in Winnipeg’s cat overpopulation, these three actions need to be taken.

1.    Any owned cat must be spayed or neutered, even if it’s an indoor cat.  Every WHS animal is spayed or neutered before it leaves the building.  (We also provide subsidized spay and neuter surgeries to help low-income families off-set the cost.)
2.    Stray cats must be rescued and spayed or neutered before they are adopted out to loving families.
3.    Feral cats can be Trapped, Neutered and Released through our TNR Program.

Cat overpopulation is a problem that all citizens of Winnipeg must solve together.  The rescue groups and shelters simply cannot do it alone—the problem is much too large.

Read more about feral cats, our SNAP program (spay/neuter assistance) and our TNR program.